Under The Knife 6/17/22

Father's Dayteenth Edition

First, happy father’s day out there, to my dad and to all others who celebrate. Once again, a lot of injuries all happening here in Week 10 of the MLB regular season, a bit later than most expected an uptick and unusual in terms of the shape of injuries in a normal season. I have a feeling that when we look back, whether because of the delayed/shortened spring or otherwise, we’re not going to remember this as normal.

Second, Substack has added a new feature that I’ve been using this week, where free subscribers can see some of the paid newsletters - a preview, and I’ve been doing the intro and the first player as a test. There haven’t been many conversions or even more opens, so I think the free people are largely not going to pay. Some have asked me to do a sale. I can’t. Five bucks is the lowest Substack allows. I want to earn your money and your trust each month, each newsletter, but I also need to grow (or find outside opportunities.) Any suggestions you have would help.

So on to the injuries:

JACOB DEGROM, SP NYM (fractured shoulder)

Here we are at the end of Week 10 of the MLB season. I only know this because of a head to head fantasy baseball league I’m in. MLB doesn’t count weeks or divide it up naturally the way that the NFL does. When baseball people talk in weeks, it’s usually injuries and even then, spring training, offseason issues, and more make it difficult to talk about weeks in concrete terms because they’re never intended that way. “Eight to ten weeks” is a guideline, not a promise.

Mets fans should know better than to have put an X on the calendar, expecting Jacob deGrom to just show up on some arbitrary schedule. That’s where the team is now, progressing their pitcher through a throwing program with the weight of a first place season trying to change the plan. I’ll give them points for sticking to it, with deGrom throwing bullpens and having no major setbacks after allowing his shoulder blade to heal from the stress.

With 30-pitch pens happening, the next step should be live hitters in some fashion. A rehab assignment is possible inside of June, but I think it’s more likely that July opens with a two or three step plan. I’d again advocate for a quicker return and a modified “start” to maximize what they can get out of deGrom, but the medical side could be noting high stress innings should be gradual.

With the late All Star break this year, that remains the most likely goal and a three start rehab would match with that. The arbitrary break seems natural, but it’s hard to say the Mets need a break to add deGrom to the rotation, even if he needs a shadow and a rested pen behind him. I’m fascinated with how Buck Showalter will handle this and the return of Max Scherzer behind that.