PITTSBURGH — As long as Jacob deGrom’s forearm tightness does not improve, the Mets are shutting him down from throwing.
The Mets placed deGrom on the injured list Sunday, retroactive to July 15, which will cause him to miss at least the next two series against the Reds and Blue Jays.
This is deGrom’s second IL stint in the past two months and his fifth injury of the year. The Mets still do not have a starter determined for the first two games of their next three-game series in Cincinnati, starting on Monday.
“I’m frustrated,” deGrom said on Sunday from PNC Park. “I don’t know what else to say.”
DeGrom is hopeful that since the MRI he received on Friday night showed no structural damage, the injury is not serious. But the ace and the team’s medical staff cannot pinpoint why or how the forearm tightness occurred. What’s more curious, deGrom clarified on Sunday that he believes all four of his previous injuries this season (back stiffness, right lat and side tightness, right flexor tendinitis and right shoulder soreness) were the result of his hacks at the plate.
He does not believe his current malady is due to hitting. To complement his MLB-best 1.08 ERA through 15 starts, deGrom has the highest batting average (.364) among starting pitchers this season, with six RBI and four runs scored across 33 plate appearances. Like everything else deGrom does on the field, he takes his hitting seriously.
“I don’t think this one was on a swing,” he said. “I think we had kind of fixed that. I think it was just something that didn’t recover.”
DeGrom on Friday arrived at PNC Park, a day later than the rest of his team, with the intention of pitching on Sunday in the series finale against the Pirates. When he was unable to complete his routine bullpen session due to the pain that day, his start was completely ruled out and he was shut down from throwing. DeGrom first received treatment for his tightness on Saturday.
He first felt the pain before the All-Star break, in the days after his last start on July 7 against the Brewers at Citi Field. On July 11, deGrom told Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner that his forearm was a bit sore during his bullpen session, but he didn’t think much of it other than general body aches after an outing. He went into the All-Star break thinking the four days of rest would dissolve the pain. When he played catch last week, he called Hefner and again told him the tightness was not going away.
“So when I go to release a baseball, I’m having a hard time staying through it and throwing the ball how I’m supposed to,” deGrom said. “The other day, I felt it from literally lobbing a baseball and then never really seemed to get any better. Just continued to stay tight even when I got on the mound.
“I guess the positive thing is, structurally, my elbow looks good. But the frustration part is, why? What is it? What did I do to cause it?”
DeGrom is in his age-33 season and throwing fastballs at a higher rate and velocity (101-plus mph) than ever before in his career. It’s possible that the combination of his age, the wear and tear on his bones and the maximum effort he expels to throw a baseball have led to this forearm injury and the amount of time it’s taking to heal.
When deGrom was asked last month — during a bout of right shoulder soreness that caused him to leave his outing against the Cubs after just three innings — whether his injuries this season could be the result of throwing harder this season, the Mets ace did not rule it out. (Even though, on Sunday, he said his shoulder injury was caused by swinging the bat.)
“He’s older,” manager Luis Rojas said. “He’s going to start feeling different things, maybe.”