Mets RHP Jacob deGrom will miss Opening Day Thursday at the Washington Nationals due to a stress reaction in his right scapula, the team announced Friday.
"Jake underwent an MRI today that revealed a stress reaction on his scapula that has caused inflammation in the area," the Mets said in a statement. "The immediate prescription is for Jake to discontinue throwing for up to 4 weeks and then reimage the area. At that time, we'll update the plan of care."
"It's really hard to say," GM Billy Eppler said Friday, shortly after the Mets' announcement, when asked about how long he expects deGrom to be sidelined. "What we're going to do is just follow an order of operations right now and we'll take another picture here as late as four weeks, but that's where we are right now."
DeGrom, 33, made two spring training starts March 22 and 27. In five innings, deGrom recorded 10 strikeouts to zero walks and allowed one run on four hits.
"Again, it's really hard to say because you treat patients -- MRIs guide you, but you treat patients," Eppler said. "So there could be situations where we manipulate the shoulder a bit, move it around, test him. If he doesn't present with any kind of symptom at that time and everything seems to go well and it goes well for a number of days in a row, then maybe you look at it earlier. But I think that, based on what we saw, I think four weeks is a reasonable timeline to take another photo."
The 2021 season saw deGrom get shut down after a tight forearm surfaced July 18. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner was 7-2 with a 1.08 ERA in 92 innings over 15 starts, striking out 146 while walking just 11.
"Everybody has adversity," Eppler said. "Everybody does. Every team. All the time. So you with these things. And would we love to have Jake out there Opening Day? Yeah, absolutely. But we understand that this is what teams go through. So that's what we'll do. We'll manage it and move forward."
Manager Buck Showalter was also asked about what deGrom's injury means for the team following the Mets' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday, and he pointed to the depth the team has already been building.
"You prepare for those things," said Showalter. "It’s something we talked about as soon as Billy and I came here, the ‘What ifs?’ are always around the corner, and I’m surprised it’s been this long so knock on wood.
"We lost a pitcher for a period of time that plays every fifth day, so we’ll see the reason why the front office and everybody’s been on top of the depth."
