Javy stays on course for timely return
SAN FRANCISCO — Four days after he landed on the injured list and nearly a week since his last at-bat that counted, Javier Baez was finally back doing infield work. He fielded ground balls, though clearly wasn’t as agile as usual, as coaches and trainers supervised nearby. It was Baez’s first encouraging step since he was placed on the IL with a discomfort that began as hip and lower back tightness and later became back spasms.
Moments after Baez’s promising drills, Mets acting GM Zack Scott said the team expects his IL stint to be the minimum.
“He should be back fairly quickly,” Scott said Monday at Oracle Park. “We were expecting this to be like a 10-day thing. He’s feeling better each day. We expect him back pretty quickly.”
Manager Luis Rojas echoed Scott, adding Monday was the first time the skipper saw a change in Baez’s attitude. “He’s better today. He was joking saying, ‘Put me in,’” Rojas said. “More positive about how he’s felt body-wise. Let’s see how he keeps responding.”
Baez is eligible to come off the IL on Sunday when the Mets wrap up their seven-game road trip with a series finale against the Dodgers. It sounds like the Mets could activate him for that game, or give him the extra day on the team’s offday Monday and activate him for the next homestand, which begins with another game against the Giants next Tuesday.
SENSE OF URGENCY
The pressure for the Mets to start winning is at an all-time high after the Dodgers handed them a three-game sweep on the Amazin’s home turf. Scott said the Mets’ road trip — three against the best team in baseball in the Giants, then four against the Dodgers — is “very important.” He then added, pretty much every game is important at this point.
“We gotta bring it every night because these guys are so good,” Scott said. “But we have talent, too. These guys battle.”
DEGROM NON-UPDATE
Jacob deGrom (right elbow inflammation) met with Dr. David Altchek on Monday in what the team is calling a routine checkup. The Mets ace will continue his two-week shutdown and the team did not appear to learn anything new from the appointment.
Rojas mentioned his inflammation is “still improving.”
Scott seemed confident, depending on what deGrom’s next MRI reveals at the end of his two-week shutdown, that the team can start ramping him again. If all goes well, deGrom could return by mid-September. But there’s a very real possibility that the ramp up will cause deGrom’s inflammation to worsen.