The Mets officially placed ace Jacob deGrom on the 10-day IL before Tuesday's game against the Baltimore Orioles at Citi Field, but deGrom is already throwing as he works toward a return from back tightness.

DeGrom played catch on Tuesday for the first time since having an MRI on Sunday, manager Luis Rojas told reporters via Zoom, with Rojas adding that the plan is for deGrom to play catch every day until he returns.

As far as the MRI, it came back totally clean.

"There's nothing going on," Rojas said. "Nothing in there. No inflammation, no sprain, nothing. The plan right now is to treat it because it's tightness and to make sure that when he's throwing there's nothing getting out of whack, because of the tightness."

As deGrom throws, the Mets will pay attention to his mechanics to "make sure everything is in line the way he's always done it and that it's not affecting any other area," Rojas added.

Rojas noted that the Mets are "optimistic" deGrom will miss just one start before being activated from the IL.

With deGrom's IL stint backdated to May 10, he will be eligible to return on May 20. But with the Mets being off that day, his first start back if all goes well would be May 21 against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field.

THE ROTATION PLAN

With the Mets having two off-days this week (Monday and Thursday), they plan to go back to Marcus Stroman on regular rest on Sunday, which means they need just four starters for this turn through the rotation.

After Stroman pitches Tuesday, Taijuan Walker will get the ball on Wednesday, followed by David Peterson on Friday against the Rays in Tampa.

Sunday's starter is TBD, and the Mets will likely use an opener (as they did this past Saturday) or turn to Joey Lucchesi.

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