Already living life without Jacob deGrom, the first-place Mets also will have to survive without co-ace Max Scherzer for a minimum of six-to-eight weeks.
An MRI revealed the $130 million right-hander suffered a “moderate to high-grade internal oblique strain” in Wednesday’s start against the Cardinals. Scherzer departed with two outs in the sixth inning after signaling to the dugout that he was “done” with a hand gesture across his neck.
Few teams have had to attempt to pull off a next-man-up approach of this magnitude — losing a pair of aces with a combined five Cy Young awards in their careers — but Buck Showalter and the Mets have no other choice.
“This is a chance to shine, instead of a chance to pull the dirt around you. It’s what you’re supposed to do,” Showalter said after Pete Alonso’s walk-off home run lifted the Mets to a stirring 7-6 win Thursday over the Cardinals in 10 innings. “As opposed to saying, ‘OK, stop the wheel, I’m gonna get off and when everybody gets back, we’re gonna start up again.’
Max Scherzer leaves Mets game on May 18, 2022 with an injury. Robert Sabo“It doesn’t work that way in any sport, and that’s what makes it fun from a standpoint that [another] guy is going to get in and get an opportunity now.”
Scherzer noted after Wednesdays game he “just felt a zing on my left side and just knew I was done,” but said at the time he didn’t believe the injury was “a major” strain. Showalter also revealed before Thursday’s game that the veteran righty also has been dealing with multiple blisters on his pitching hand in his last two starts.
Showalter believes the 37-year-old Scherzer has “come to grips” with not fighting through every injury later in his career, citing the hamstring issue that forced him to push back his scheduled Opening Day start.
“I think he’s really smart about it,” Showalter said. “He had the hamstring that he was real smart about that he kept from being something that earlier in his career would’ve turned into something.”
Showalter volunteered the information about the blisters before the game, suggesting they affected Scherzer’s breaking-ball command during Wednesday night’s outing.
“It’s another thing with the baseball, or the seams, it’s just different. He’s been pitching with that his last two starts,” Showalter said. “We’ve had it legally … the stuff we’ve been doing with it, we ran it by the league office to see what we could and couldn’t do.”
For now, general manager Billy Eppler’s initial pitching plans are to stay within the organization. There is inclement weather in the forecast this weekend in Colorado, but lefty David Peterson will travel with the team as a member of the taxi squad. He eventually is expected to join Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker and likely Trevor Williams in the five-man rotation.
The Mets also have been intrigued by Adonis Medina in his brief stint (three games) with them this year, and they recently signed 34-year-old righty Trevor Cahill to a minor league deal as insurance, The Post has learned.
DeGrom has been sidelined to start the season with a stress reaction in his right scapula, and his rotation replacement, Tylor Megill, also went on the disabled list last weekend with right biceps inflammation.
“It definitely sucks, but it’s more so just next man up,” Bassitt, Thursday’s starter, said of the Scherzer news. “We have the depth to withstand this and this is why I think the front office and Billy and all those guys brought me in, brought Max in, to really shore up the starters.
“When things happen, because things happen to everybody, we’re able to still win games. We didn’t lose him for the year, so it is what it is.”
— Additional reporting by Joel Sherman
