Pity the newsbreaker tasked with delivering momentous tidings on April 1, a date which, for some strange reason, gives everyone processing such information pause to wonder if it’s real. Indeed, it would be swell if the bulletin from the late afternoon of April 1, 2022 — that Jacob deGrom’s right shoulder is something short of shipshape and Bristol fashion — were standard lazy gag fare.
But, of course, it’s not. We were prepped for the sharp elbow to the face the night before when word went forth that Jake’s business shoulder was feeling tight, serving as a harbinger for the condition of the pit of our stomachs approximately seven seconds later. Jake wouldn’t be pitching Friday’s pretend game. Would Jake be pitching the following Thursday’s real game, the one slated to start the already delayed season?
We learned Friday he won’t be. Or any games for a while. How long that while will last can be calculated via the Metropolitan abacus or whichever app you have handy. Take how long they say he needs to rest (four weeks); add how long you’d figure working out and ramping up will take (at least a month); factor in setbacks (because when aren’t there setbacks?); remember this is the Mets we’re talking about; and it was nice knowing you, Jacob.
I don’t really want to be that way. It’s a stress reaction in deGrom’s right scapula, not a tree falling in the forest directly on his head. Nevertheless, we make a sound akin to “AAUUGGHH!!” no matter how conditioned we are to learning Jake will miss his next start(s). This was going to be The Year of the Two Aces, the best pitcher in the world who’s always been ours and the other best pitcher in the world who somehow is also ours. DeGrom and Scherzer/and to opposing batters murder! The good news is Max Scherzer’s hamstring tweak is said to be no real issue.
The bad news is WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY ABOUT MAX SCHERZER’S HAMSTRING?
Welcome to the Mets, Max. You probably didn’t even know you had hamstrings until you got here. We didn’t know the human anatomy comes equipped with all kinds of fragile doodads until we became Mets fans. Take the scapula, that bone that connects the humerous with the clavicle (now I hear the word of the Lord). The scapula sounded familiar when Jacob’s was diagnosed. Matt Harvey had a scapula. I suppose we all have them, but it was Harvey’s scapula that, among other things, kept Matt from continuing to be Matt in 2017. He was out a couple of months and very shy of pitching remotely like the same Matt Harvey we’d known and idolized once he came back. Not that Matt Harvey by then more than loitered at that level, so let’s not lump all Met scapulas into one enormous pile of deGromified anxiety.
Have you ever heard of a scapula in any context other than a Mets pitcher having problems with one?
“Hey, Ted, how’s the scapula?”
“My scapula’s doin’ great, Harry — thanks for asking!”
Nope, never happens. No wonder the word “scapula” has such a low Q rating.
DeGrom’s popularity, on the other hand (the one he’ll have to use if he wishes to pick up a baseball in April), has always been stratospheric with the likes of us. We love Jacob deGrom. We wish Jacob deGrom could pitch every fifth day and then some. Jake and Max and three days of Jake because we can’t get enough Jake. Now, as far as we can tell, it will be Max, followed by that nice Chris Bassitt fellow — his first start to beam over Apple TV+, apparently — then Taijuan Walker, Carlos Carrasco, Tylor Megill/Trevor Williams/David Peterson or whoever doesn’t have a scapula reacting to stress. Trade talks are in the air as well. So who knows?
We knew we had Jacob deGrom to throw our first pitch of 2022. Now we know less than we used to. Here’s to a speedy and comprehensive recovery for Jake. And for us.
When my kids were in the 3rd or 4th grade they had to learn the names and locations of bones in the human body. We made up some mnemonics (“There’s a lemur on my femur”, e.g.) to help them. Another one was “Dracula puts his cape around his scapula”. Sigh if you will, but 30 years later, we all knew exactly where Jake was hurting. Thank god that knowledge was useful one day.
And, oh yeah…Let’s Go Mets.
Jake pitched well in his pre-season games, but I never heard a report on how he was actually FEELING after those starts. I guess I got my answer.
Well the thigh bone’s connected to the leg bone and the scapula bone’s connected to the IL and the IL better not be connected to this trade that is besmirching my TL on the bird app.
Man, this sure is a bummer.
Mets rounding into mid-season injury form, I see. Ahead of schedule – usually it takes a few weeks of play for something catastrophic to happen.
According to numerous reports, Scherzer is “day-to-day” with what I believe to be the same hamstring that bothered him last year in the post-season. Of course!
As for Jake, he and the Mets need to stop screwing around with this nonsense of “he just needs rest” that characterized last season’s melodrama. If I were he, I’d get my own medical evaluation double-quick and follow what those professionals told me -even if it’s Tommy John or worse. I for one, and I suspect the majority of Mets fans, just simply do not believe the party line anymore.
The Mets have had a dismal record for at least 20 years of misdiagnosing injuries, keeping players active who should be on the IL, and I’m sad to say, deliberately putting forth misinformation to the public based on wishful thinking. The mention of Matt Harvey’s scapula gave me the chills.
It’s not a popular opinion, and it may be overly pessimistic and very difficult to hear, but the Mets and their fans may have to accept the fact that perhaps the best is already behind Jacob. Jake turned in seven-plus years of phenomenal pitching and he’s easily one of the all-time franchise greats, but based on everything we’re seeing and hearing it seems pretty clear that he is breaking down. He lasted all of five innings in spring training and sorry, but that’s really ominous, and it just seems highly unlikely that he’s going to just come back and pick up where he left off. Of course, that COULD happen and if it does happen it’ll absolutely cement deGrom as a legend. I WANT that to happen, but in all honestly, I dunno.
Sad to say, Lenny, but you appear to be right. Amid all the excitement surrounding the Scherzer signing, I suspected we wouldn’t see much of him or deGrom, considering how they ended their seasons. Everyone was whistling through the graveyard, and I hoped I was, too. But alas…..
And if it comes to pass, I would not mind at all seeing Bassitt on Opening Day, and some scrub pitching on Apple on Friday, just to screw Apple. And I will have my radio handy, just like Greg and GV.l
I’m less concerned about Scherzer, as at least it isn’t his throwing arm. Not that it isn’t a cause for alarm, because we all know all about hamstrings, but with deGrom it’s his arm that’s breaking down. If and when he returns, it’s going to be supremely nerve-wracking. “How many pitches has he thrown? How many more can he throw? HOW DOES HE FEEL???”…every start is going to be anxiety off the charts.
Hey, looks like ‘screw’ made it past the censors. :)
So Jacob deGrom may find himself deprived of the Hall of Fame after some Met trainer thought it was completely cool for him to throw over 15 pitches over 100 MPH in a game last year… and David Wright did find himself deprived of the Hall of Fame after some Met trainer thought it was entirely acceptable for Wright to play a half a season with a literal broken back… and Ryan Church was deprived of a decent major league career when some Met trainer thought it was just peachy that he was flying around with the team while he had a concussion, something a first year resident would have told him not to do… is anyone else seeing a pattern here? Someday, some Met player is going to hit the training staff with the mother of all malpractice suits, and I hope I’m there to see it.
Didn’t know this, but now the trade makes perfect sense:
“Paddack, who had Tommy John surgery in the minors in 2016, was shut down last September with what the team said was a slight sprain of his right elbow.”
Harvey’s 2017 scapula injury came on the heels of his 2016 thoracic outlet surgery, and he still made it to June 2017.
That deGrom didn’t even make it out of a carefully managed spring training 2022 on the heels of his 2021 breakdown is a big red flag for a 33 year old who’ll be 34 by the time he comes back. If he comes back. And assuming he does come back when forecasted, deGrom will be carefully managed for the foreseeable future. And we’ll be on eggshells waiting for his next injury.
Whatever physical price deGrom accepted to become the best at his craft, he’s paying it now.
The Mets let Matz, Syndergaard, and Wheeler go and kept deGrom. I wonder how much they’ll pitch in the coming years while deGrom is hurt again and again.
So now what? Feeling very deGrumpy today…
Eric, it kinda reminds me of when the Mets ditched all their old over-the-hill pitchers – ya know, Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, those old guys – and held onto young studs Craig Swan and Pat Zachry because they were young and strong and would pitch a ton of great ball for the Mets unless that got, you know, injured…
…no, I didn’t just compare Jacob deGrom to Craig Swan. In fact, I didn’t even post just now. Let’s just move on, shall we?
It reminds me of David Wright. A few years of Hall of Fame worthy performance, the era of the franchise placed on his back, then the cornerstone of the team chronically hurt thereafter, leaving the Mets with continual uncertainty, and the era sputtering out.