The Mets have a trio of key pieces on the IL, with all three in jeopardy of missing the rest of the season, and manager Luis Rojas gave updates on all three on Friday before New York’s series opener against the Yankees.
Well, somewhat of an update.
Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo are all working their way back from injury, and none have an estimated timeline of a return, and are up against the clock with just over three weeks to go in the season. Syndergaard threw a bullpen Friday, now out of his COVID-19 quarantine that cut his rehab assignment short, and Rojas is optimistic that the righty will be able to make his return before the end of the season.
“No date right now,” Rojas said. “He’s feeling good. He did a really good job…keeping his arm in shape and himself in shape. I talked to him earlier today, he’s pretty optimistic. Let’s see when that is. Even though we lost some time, we feel like he might be able to pitch for us at one point.”
DeGrom also threw on Friday, playing catch from 90 feet, but his season is still in question after team president Sandy Aderson surprisingly revealed that the Mets ace had a partial UCL tear. DeGrom later said his ligament was “perfectly fine,” and the plan is to still try for a return this year, but he is up against the clock with no estimated timeline to begin throwing off a slope.
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“He’s still playing catch,” Rojas said. “I think you guys heard Sandy the other day say it might be through the end of the season…let’s see how he progresses on the distancing. Today was 90 feet. He threw 120 the other day…we’ll see how he goes off the slope and we’ll start talking about dates and what’s gonna happen.”
There is a more optimistic outlook for Nimmo, though his season is still in question. The outfielder, who strained his hamstring last week, is already ramping up his running speed, making a return this season more hopeful than when he initially suffered the injury.
“Better than what we thought initially. He’s running up to 75 percent right now,” Rojas said. “It’s only been six days since it happened, and for him to be at this point is fairly quick. I don’t want to put a date on it…but he’s swinging, he’s playing catch and he’s running. That’s a really, really good sign. We might see him before the season’s over…he’s healing quicker than we expected.”
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