In Taijuan Walker’s start last Wednesday against Baltimore, his left side was enough of an issue that he did not swing in three at-bats to protect it.

Five days later, Walker ended his outing in Atlanta early because of tightness in his side.

Should the Mets have let him pitch at all?

The question comes in light of recent injuries that Jacob deGrom and Jeff McNeil tried to play through before landing on the injured list.

Now down more players than we can recite from memory, the team can hardly afford to take additional risks.

Walker will undergo an MRI on Tuesday but maintained that his injury wasn’t “anything too serious.”

Asked why he started five days after feeling unable to swing, he said, “I felt pretty good. We did a lot of work to get it better, and I felt good yesterday. Threw off the mound a little bit yesterday and it felt good. The first pitch [on Monday] it just kind of grabbed on me and just never got better throughout the game.”

It’s natural for an athlete to want to compete, and they often play through minor injuries. If a pitcher skipped a start every time he felt tight somewhere, he would hardly ever pitch.

But with side muscles -- obliques, intercostals, rib cages -- re-injury is a particular risk, and setbacks can become long-term absences.

Popular in the Community