Brandon Nimmo hurts his ankle as the Mets are now limping towards the beginning of the season
The Mets also claimed a pitcher off waivers to help shore up their sudden holes in the bullpen
What’s Up with the Mets? 🌴
The Mets defeated the Marlins 6-1 at Clover Park on Friday night (Box)
Carlos Carrasco started and threw four scoreless innings with only a walk along with seven strikeouts
Jeff Brigham, Stephen Nogosek, TJ McFarland and John Curtiss did not allow a run in their relief efforts
The Mets put up a five-spot in the fourth inning highlighted by Luis Guillorme’s bases-clearing, three-run double
Roster Moves 📰
Claimed RHP Dennis Santana from the Twins
Injury Updates 🏥
Brandon Nimmo left Friday night’s game with what the team described as right ankle soreness following an awkward slide into second base. He will undergo imaging today, but said after the game he felt, “pretty good.”
Today’s Game 🦩
Game 2️⃣0️⃣ of 3️⃣0️⃣
Match-up: Mets vs. Astros
Where: Ballpark of the Palm Beaches - West Palm Beach, FL
Starters: RHP Max Scherzer vs. LHP Framber Valdez
When: 7:05 PM EDT
Where to Watch: n/a
Limping towards the beginning, but all is not lost! ✍🏻
The Mets have really had a rough week, haven’t they?
It all started with Brooks Raley - the lone major league lefty they acquired during the off-season - coming back to Port St. Lucie from the World Baseball Classic with a hamstring strain.
Then, Sam Coonrod - a bullpen hopeful who was having a strong spring - pulled up lame with a lat strain.
Next up was Edwin Díaz which, I’ve gotta tell you, I still can’t wrap my head around, process, and truly understand. And my inability to grasp what happened has nothing to do with what I think about the World Baseball Classic, which for the record I believe is a wonderful, inclusive, exciting, dramatic, and truly important part of the game itself.
Then came Brandon Nimmo last night, who seemingly caught a spike sliding into what was an otherwise routing 6-4-3 double play and injuring his ankle in the process. Hopefully this is just a minor bump in the road and there’s nothing to it, but after that Díaz thing on Wednesday night - which again I truly cannot believe actually happened, but it did - we all couldn’t help but have another, “oh crap” moment with the Mets, right?
You know you’re with me.
My general fear with spring training - and now the World Baseball Classic - is always what we are seeing unfold with the Mets. One injury after the next at the top of the depth chart which thickens the cloud just a little bit over opening day, which is now less than two weeks away.
We saw this happen last year, although perhaps not to this extent, when both Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom suffered injuries towards the end of camp causing the Mets to pivot 180 degrees with their rotation. Instead of a future hall of famer getting the opening day start, suddenly it was Tylor Megill who of course covered brilliantly for one while David Peterson did the same for the other.
It happens time and time again not just with the Mets, but throughout the sport. It’s easy to forget that since we center our focus on this club. But look at what happened with Gavin Lux and the Dodgers. Look at what has happened to the Yankee rotation. Whether its spring training, the WBC, the regular season, or sometimes in the gym lifting weights (ask Padres starter Joe Musgrove about that one), players break regardless of the uniform.
And then there are the non-sports injuries, like the one that happened Wednesday night in Miami.
Remember when Lucas Duda broke his wrist moving a sofa? How about Bobby Ojeda’s finger mishap?
Weird human things happen to all of us. I once herniated a disc in my back reaching for a spoon in the dishwasher, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, the Mets are limping towards the beginning of their season right now. It feels like they could use some good mojo these days given what has been happening to them.
The funny thing is, as crummy as things may seem, this is still a really good team. There is no reason why this roster can’t win the division, and we all know the back-end of today’s bullpen is not what the back-end of the bullpen will look like on October 1. After all, Steve Cohen did not pump what will eventually be $450 million into this payroll to say, “oh well” when it comes to the ninth inning. They’re going to have to weather the storm for sure, find relievers to give them “moments” as they piece their plan together.
Nobody is saying its going to be as pretty as Diaz’s 100 mph fastball. But it doesn’t have to be as long as they bridge that gap, which they are obligated to do with as many pieces as they can find, when they can find them.
Around the League 🚩
Dodgers RHP Tony Gonsolin is expected to open the season on the injured list with an ankle injury (LA Times)
Randy Arozarena starred again for Team Mexico, this time with his glove as Mexico upset Puerto Rico to reach the semifinals in the WBC (MLB.com)
MLB intends to intensify its search for illegal substances with pitchers (ESPN)