New York Mets ace Noah Syndergaard had an MRI Monday morning, revealing a partial tear of his right lat muscle. Could it have been avoided?
The New York Mets‘ news went from bad to worse this morning.
Mets announce P Noah Syndergaard has partial tear in his right lat. He'll be placed on the 10-day DL with no timetable for return. pic.twitter.com/pASwf96mD8
— Stadium (@Stadium) May 1, 2017
Noah Syndergaard will be out of the Mets’ starting rotation for a large chunk of time. Another injury-plagued Mets starter, Steven Matz, missed nearly two months of baseball with the same injury two years ago.
That Syndergaard is a big loss could be the understatement of the year.
Seeing Syndergaard pitch yesterday was a highly questionable move in the first place, one for which Terry Collins is already under much scrutiny. Syndergaard, scratched on Wednesday, refused to go for an MRI. He then pitched Sunday, not making it out of the second inning before possibly ending his season.
Earlier this season I wrote a piece discussing the Mets’ injury woes of 2016. Someone in the comments posed the following question: “but what’s the medical reason we should be more worried about the rotation that any other team would be about theirs?”
The reason isn’t just luck. As Ken Rosenthal points out:
"The Mets, who ended up losing to the Nats by a mere 23-5, are notorious for misdiagnosing injuries, downplaying the severity of injuries, basically screwing up with injuries in every way possible."
This has seemingly become a pattern for the Mets. For other teams, a pitcher who dealt with an injury-riddled season doesn’t have much difficulty coming back, because other teams handle things differently. You’ll often hear fans making the “stop babying him” comment, but in this day and age of who-can-throw-the-fastest, there is a reason.
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The Mets aren’t alone. Some teams are consistently injury-riddled simply because of the way they handle said injuries. Pitch counts, inning limits, days off. It’s almost becoming a science now that teams needs to master.
But right now, the Mets are the prime example.
It wasn’t responsible of the young ace to skip out on an MRI, but it was also his right. It was less responsible of the Mets organization to let him pitch doing so. A bullpen session where he throws a 100-mph fastball is hardly enough grounds to deem someone healthy, and yesterday showed that.
Look at the Mets’ injury log in April. The depth they take so much pride in having on their pitching staff took a major hit. Strikeout machine Rafael Montero may get the call, but no matter how much his promise is, he is no Syndergaard.
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Their DL is already growing daily. Syndergaard and Matz are now out indefinitely. This is a team that was an odds-on favorite to not only win their division, not only win their league, but were serious World Series contenders. While a 10-14 April under normal circumstances isn’t necessarily worrisome, under these conditions the panic button is certainly flashing.
Hopefully, the Mets have some answers and won’t need to press it just yet.