The Mets have added yet another entry to their ever-growing injured list on Wednesday, as manager Luis Rojas said that Taijuan Walker is the latest casualty.
Walker, much like rotation-mate Jacob deGrom earlier this month, appeared to have avoided injury after battling side tightness that eventually resulted in a clean MRI, but despite the encouraging prognosis, Rojas told Carton & Roberts that the team wanted to play it safe with Walker.
“With all the injuries we’ve had, we didn’t want anything to be more serious at the moment, and he agreed,” Rojas said
Walker has been the Mets’ best starter outside of deGrom season, winning over fans early in his debut season with a 2.05 ERA in eight starts, but now both he and deGrom are on the shelf despite clean MRI results. Rojas explained that Walker’s time off will be spent looking into what has caused the lingering side soreness, which Walker said has been popping up over the last couple weeks.
“I got a really good explanation about going into detail with his delivery and his mechanics and making sure this doesn’t happen again,” Rojas said. “Once you develop tightness in an outing, it can become a major issue…we don’t want that to be the case here. That’s why we’re going to go on the safe side and do the 10-day IL so we can get rid of that tightness.”
Rojas said he hopes Walker will be able to come off the IL after the 10-day period and will be ready to be put right back into the rotation, which remains depleted with the absence of Walker, deGrom and Carlos Carrasco, who is still working his way back from a hamstring injury that has prevented him from pitching yet this season.
“That’s the plan, and just working between there, throw sides and watch video,” Rojas said. “Once he feels really good and we detect what the problem is, then he can come back up and make a start.”
As for deGrom, he is set to make a rehab start this week, with the expectation being that he can return to the team after that outing if all goes well.
“That’s the expectation today,” Rojas said. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow…We can check on how he feels and be safe, the same thing we’re doing with Taijuan.”
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