The New York Mets got some bad news last night regarding their ace Jacob deGrom.
And no, this is not an April Fools’ joke.
The right-hander is dealing with a tight shoulder, which was enough for manager Buck Showalter to scratch him from his start today against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Showalter said this morning that deGrom is going for some imaging this morning.
Veteran right-hander Felix Pena will start today’s game in deGrom’s place.
As of now, it’s looking like the Mets might be without the best pitcher in the game for a decent amount of time, as it’s unlikely he will be good to go for Opening Day at this point.
Jacob deGrom update: He has been scratched from his start and is going for “images” at 9:30 a.m., Buck Showalter said.
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) April 1, 2022
An Ominous Start To 2022
If there was one concern with the Mets pitching staff, it was injuries.
While on paper this is probably one of the better rotations in all of baseball, deGrom’s 2021 season was cut short due to elbow troubles.
While this is a shoulder injury, there was still that concern for deGrom.
Regardless, this is very bad news for the Mets, who were busy this offseason in free agency.
As of now, they’ll likely turn to Max Scherzer to start Opening Day, but even Scherzer has some question marks surrounding him this season, as he fell into a dead arm state at the end of last year, which ultimately got him scratched from his start in Game 6 of the NLCS.
There’s no indication of any troubles for Scherzer at the moment, but it is still a major question mark.
But with deGrom out, the Mets rotation takes a major hit, which could be a bad omen heading into the 2022 season.
We’ll see how long he needs to recover.
NEXT: Francisco Lindor Is Clearly Ready To Get The Season Started