Carlos Carrasco threw on Sunday, playing catch from 75 feet to mark his first action since he was shut down with elbow soreness earlier this week. He “felt good” afterwards, and told the media after the session he thought the soreness was more a result of that day’s workload than any injury issues.
“After the live BP, I just felt a little something. I took a couple days off to give it a little rest to settle,” Carrasco said. “But I started throwing today and felt good.”
Carrasco has yet to pitch in a Grapefruit League game and will have to do some more live BP and bullpens before he does, but he said “oh yes, absolutely I will be ready” when asked if he would be ready for Opening Day or shortly thereafter.
"I know what I need to do, and I just take it from there,” Carrasco said.
The Mets only have one off day in their first week (April 2, right after April 1’s opener in Washington) so they will need to use all five of their starters by April 7 at the latest. Another off day on April 9 could buy the Mets time for Carrasco – even with a 10-day injured list stint, he could still debut on April 12 and miss just one start – and with three pitchers competing in earnest for the final spot in the Mets’ rotation, the team has multiple options to deploy in his place the first turn through if Carrasco is a no go.
Manager Luis Rojas is happy to hear Carrasco’s optimism, but he’s still taking things one day at a time.
“It’s great to hear he’s optimistic, but right now for me, I’m keeping it in range; he threw today and felt great, and he’ll play catch tomorrow and then throw a side, and we’ll go from there,” Rojas said. “I have to respect an experienced pitcher like Carlos who knows his body, but let’s see how this week unfolds. Going back to a couple days ago, when we said he’d be shut down, to be able to play catch today means things are going accordingly, but I want to see the week develop and then we’ll talk more about that.”