An MRI scan performed on the New York Mets ace’s right shoulder, Jacob deGrom, came out clean, manager Luis Rojas said Thursday.
“They did an MRI and we ran it through two doctors just to get a second opinion, and both doctors had the same prognosis, from the images – it just shows a normal shoulder like a pitcher would have it and there’s no concern.” Rojas said, adding that deGrom played shoot and catch Thursday.
Rojas said the team plans to take him “day to day” with deGrom, and there are no plans at this time to place him on the disabled list. They are also not sure when he will make his next outing.
“I don’t see how this would change today, doing a stint on the disabled list,” Rojas said. “It’s going to be a normal shoulder in 10 days. I’m less worried (because) he’s playing catch today.”
DeGrom left Wednesday night’s start against the Chicago Cubs with pain in his shoulder. It was the third time he has left a start due to injury this season, including last Friday against the San Diego Padres with elbow pain and May 9 against the Arizona Diamondbacks after five innings with stiffness on the right side.
Rojas said Thursday that none of his injuries are related.
“This is something isolated from the right forearm or flexor tendinitis,” reiterated Rojas. “It is something that happened yesterday. We reviewed it after the game and we reviewed it today and everything is normal.”
The 32-year-old DeGrom struck out eight of the nine batters he faced in three innings, and drove in a run with an RBI single in the second inning. The Mets aren’t ruling out anything in terms of what caused his latest ailment, including the possibility of it happening on a swing at the plate or just the force with which he throws. deGrom has the highest average speed down the fastball (99.2 mph) of any baseball player.
“We want to pay attention to this, in a day-to-day approach,” Rojas said.
DeGrom’s three scoreless innings on Wednesday reduced his ERA to 0.54 (he has allowed just four earned runs all year), while his RBI gave him six on the season. He has 111 strikeouts in 67 innings.
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