New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was given the thumbs up to begin a throwing program Wednesday, after an MRI showed his troublesome forearm has improved, manager Luis Rojas announced. There is no firm timetable for deGrom to rejoin the team or even begin a minor-league rehab assignment, though he did play catch Wednesday.
"Jacob was cleared to start playing catch. He started today. Had an MRI this morning and the doctor gave him the green light after looking at the results," Rojas told reporters (video). "... We'll see where we go from here. Not a progression mapped out yet, how things are going to move along, but at least getting to play catch today, that's huge news for us."
Although playing catch is a step toward a return, it is only Step 1, and deGrom has a long way to build back up into game shape. He will play catch a few times, throw off the mound in the bullpen a few times, face hitters in live batting practice a few times, then get into minor-league rehab games. That's the normal program when a pitcher returns from injury, at least.
There is a little more than five weeks remaining in the regular season and that's not enough time to properly build deGrom up to 100 or so pitches. It's possible the Mets will bring him back in the middle of next month on a limited pitch count, and let him build up in big-league games. It's may either be that, or not getting deGrom on the mound during the postseason race at all.
In other Mets injury news, Noah Syndergaard will begin a minor-league rehab assignment Thursday, the team announced. He's going to throw one inning with the club's Low Class-A affiliate. The Mets have indicated they will consider using Syndergaard, a free agent-to-be, as a reliever the rest of the season in order to get him back onto their roster as quickly as possible.
DeGrom, 33, has not pitched since July 7 because of this forearm issue. He was out-of-this-world good before getting hurt this season, throwing 92 innings with a 1.08 ERA while holding batters to a .129/.160/.242 batting line. The 28-year-old Syndergaard has not pitched since having Tommy John surgery last spring. His return was slowed by a setback a few weeks ago.
At 61-64, the Mets are 6 1/2 games out in the NL East and seven games out of a wild card spot. They are 6-16 in August and there is plenty of blame to go around.
