PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The Mets are dealing with a 1-2 gut-punch.
A day after Jacob deGrom learned he would be shut down from throwing for up to four weeks, Max Scherzer was scratched from his Saturday start in an intrasquad game with right hamstring tightness. Scherzer said he considers himself day-to-day, but he isn’t sure when he will pitch again. Now, his opening-day start is in question.
“It’s frustrating,” Scherzer said. “I’ve really worked hard this offseason to really lift my legs heavy, do all the running. I felt like I was in a really good spot with my body and my arm. And it’s frustrating to have my arm, and be at this point, and have a little hiccup in my leg.”
Five days away from opening day, Mets manager Buck Showalter said he is not comfortable altering the schedule of the rest of the rotation. In the event Scherzer cannot make his opening-day outing, starters Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker are likely to remain on their regular rest and pitch games 3, 4, and 5, respectively.
Showalter emphasized that Scherzer “is still an option” for opening day. But in case he cannot go, the Mets will rely on their pitching depth for the first two games of the season against the Nationals in Washington D.C. One of the options the Mets are considering is opening the season with a bullpen game.
“Just because something doesn’t happen on the first game of the season, I’m not going to put the whole thing in disarray for one spot, or even two spots,” Showalter said. “The guys are creatures of habit.”
Scherzer said he first felt his hamstring tighten up while running on Thursday. It’s an injury that he’s dealt with previously in his 14-year big league career, with hamstring tightness popping up on both of his legs.
The right-hander said, in the past, it’s been a minor “hiccup” that generally clears out in a few days. Scherzer said he will listen to Mets trainers on how to proceed, and Mets trainers will listen to Scherzer since the veteran pitcher knows his body well. As of Saturday, Scherzer was more encouraged by the fact that his throwing arm was in good shape.
“But you’re dealing with hammies, you never know,” Scherzer said. “The good news is I’m still able to play catch, and I can still throw the baseball and get on it pretty good. So the likelihood of me being able to pitch around this or pitch through it is a pretty good chance because it’s not showing itself in the throwing mechanics.”
Scherzer continued: “You just deal with what you got. This is what I have in front of me. These are obstacles I got. I gotta figure out how to navigate through it. I’ve been pretty good about that in the past. I’ve found a way to get through different injuries. So hopefully this is just another one I can overcome.”
Scherzer stretched out to 90 pitches and six innings in his previous Grapefruit League start. Showalter indicated that, combined with Scherzer’s rest and build up, the ace’s current readiness is still sufficient enough to potentially pitch on opening day without a tune-up beforehand.
“As far as what you want to do moving forward, how you want to progress with this, it’s all dictated on how well the hamstring feels. I’m not worried about this in the long term but it’s something you’ve got to deal with right now.”
On Friday, after the Mets learned deGrom realistically won’t make a major league start before June 1, Showalter said: “The sky’s not falling, it’s just raining.” When Scherzer was asked if he’s confident the rest of the Mets rotation can weather the storm without their two aces, he said: “That has nothing to do with what I can and can’t do. I’ll be out there as soon as I can.”
But the deGrom injury news has been tough on the Mets clubhouse.
“Tough pill to hear, tough news to hear,” Scherzer said. “He thought it was something — just talking to him — he thought it was kind of minor. Turns out it’s a little bit more than minor for him to be shut down like that, a few weeks now of no throwing. You gotta address that. For him, it’s try to figure out this injury. Figure out exactly what this is and attack it with everything you got.”
