Good news and bad news on the Mets injury front, as general manager Zack Scott told reporters that Michael Conforto is being activated off the IL on Tuesday, but Joey Lucchesi is indeed headed for Tommy John surgery.
Conforto returns to the team earlier than expected, but Scott said the former All-Star’s rehab from a right hamstring strain has gone well, and he is ready to return to the lineup after missing more than six weeks.
“He’s doing great,” Scott said. “He’s actually exceeded our expectations, hit all the objective markers on his strength of his hamstring, and he’s ready to go.”
Conforto got off to a slow start this season, but had been better in May, posting a .726 OPS after his April OPS was nearly 100 points lower. He hasn’t played since May 16 and is slashing .230/.356/.336 in 33 games this season.
Lucchesi also had a rough start to the year but had allowed just three earned runs in his last 22.2 innings of work, including 5.1 shutout innings in his last start, his longest outing of the season. He will have his surgery on Thursday afternoon.
“Tough break for Joey and the club,” Scott said. “But yeah, he’s got a full tear, so it’s pretty cut and dry.”
Lucchesi is done for the year, while Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco and Robert Gsellman are all seemingly far away from a return, which will likely put the first-place Mets in an aggressive mindset as far as adding pitchers before next month’s trade deadline.
But a sensible move may not present itself right away.
“I think realistically, we’re still in June, it’s not even July yet, so we’re still looking at a market where prices tend to be pretty high until we get closer to that deadline,” Scott said. “So I don’t think it’s different. We’re gonna explore all our options. I’m on the phone a lot still trying to see what is out there and what’s available to us…we’re gonna keep trying to find solutions, both internally and externally.”
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