Dellin Betances is eligible to come off the injured list on Sunday, but given manager Luis Rojas’ latest update, it’s safe to say he won’t be ready to return by then.
Rojas spoke with reporters before Wednesday’s game and said Betances wouldn’t be traveling with the team on its road trip to Colorado and Chicago, and there is still no timeline for when the righty reliever will resume throwing after being shut down with a right shoulder impingement.
“We’ll see how he keeps progressing,” Rojas said. “But he’s probably not going to be traveling with the team...he’ll stay here to keep doing treatment and start throwing when he’s ready, we don’t have a timeline on that yet.”
Betances’ velocity was considerably down from his career average during spring training, and allowed one run in one inning against the Phillies in his lone appearance of the season. His shoulder injury is the latest in a recent stretch of bad injury luck, with shoulder and lat issues keeping him out of most of the 2019 season with the Yankees before returning and immediately suffering an Achilles injury.
“He’s getting treatment,” Rojas said. “I had a good conversation with him this afternoon. He’s getting treament and feeling better every day. There’s still minor pain and soreness, but he’s progressed well.”
The outlook is much better for J.D. Davis, who is eligible to come off the IL on Saturday. After swinging a bat again on Tuesday, it looks like Davis will be ready to return when his IL stint is up.
“He’s swinging,” Rojas said. “He actually took BP outside yesterday and from being here, I think it was Friday, working from him and seeing how he was, he wasn’t able to really whip the bat because of his bottom hand range of motion, to watching him take BP yesterday, is day and night.”
Davis was hit by a pitch on the hand, but two rounds of X-rays came back clean. Luis Guillorme and Jonathan Villar have seen more playing time in his absence, and Villar has certainly made the most of it, but Davis’ return will be another boost to the Mets offense.
“We’re probably looking at that day to see if he can get activated,” Rojas said of the likelihood Davis makes his return Saturday. “He’s progressing really well...he was taking full swings yesterday and was spraying it everywhere.”
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