Matz all for Steven for the season

MIAMI — And then there were two, well, officially, that is. The Mets finally announced what had been assumed for a while now: Steven Matz’s season is over. The lefthander is shut down with shoulder soreness and will have surgery to remove the bone spur in his left elbow next week.

The Mets optimistically said that Matz will not need shoulder surgery and is expected to be ready for 2017 spring training.

The rotation that left Florida almost six months ago with the “Five Aces,” and Bartolo Colon is down to Noah Syndergaard, Colon and two guys that weren’t on the radar two months ago.

“It’s unbelievable,” Terry Collins said when asked about the number of injuries the Mets have gone through this season. “Really unbelievable.”

The Mets went into Tuesday night’s game at Marlins Park with Syndergaard back on the mound after a bout with strep throat. They have to hope that he can help them clinch a playoff spot and pitch in the wild card game.

Matz joins Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey on the list of Mets pitchers done for the season. DeGrom had surgery last week to move the ulnar nerve in his right elbow. Harvey had surgery in July for the symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Zack Wheeler never had his season started after multiple complications in his rehab from March 2015 Tommy John surgery. He was shut down from rehab for the year.

The Matz news was not that surprising, considering he has tried to twice come back from the shoulder impingement that has had him in the disabled list since Aug. 15 only to be a late scratch. The latest attempt last week went right up to the 24-hour mark before the Mets scratched him with what he described as “pain,” in his shoulder. While the Mets would only say he has shoulder soreness, Matz admitted to having an impingement which has caused irritation in his rotator cuff.

The Mets had all but said the lefthander would not pitch again this season, but he insisted last week he was not ready to be shut down. One team source said there was no reason to crush his hopes of a comeback.

There had been some long-shot talk about Matz working toward limited appearances in the playoffs, coming out of the bullpen. That was never really a serious consideration, according to one Mets source. So Matz ends his second injuryplagued season in the majors with a 9-8 with a 3.40 ERA and a lot of question. There is concern about Matz’s long history of injuries and last week, Collins said there has to be an emphasis this offseason on finding a way for Matz to stay healthy. He has just not proven he can do that through his short pro career. He had a complicated comeback from Tommy John surgery as a minor-leaguer and in his first season in the majors, he missed significant time with a partially torn lat muscle and then again with a shoulder issue after the Mets said he slept on it wrong. Matz has been pitching with what the team admitted is a “significant,” bone spur in his left elbow since May. He needed shots of a localized painkiller before his starts to manage the discomfort.