AROUND THE HORN
Mets: Mets ace Jacob deGrom will make at least one more minor league rehab start before rejoining the rotation. The two-time Cy Young Award winner, sidelined all season by a stress reaction in his right scapula, threw 60 pitches over five innings in a simulated game Thursday at the team’s complex in Florida. Mets manager Buck Showalter said deGrom felt good Friday and his next step will be a throwing session Sunday as part of a work day at Citi Field in New York. After that, if all goes well, he’ll pitch for a minor league affiliate a few days later and then get slotted into the big league rotation. That means deGrom definitely won’t return in time to face the crosstown Yankees at Citi Field next Tuesday or Wednesday. The earliest possibilities for his season debut would be July 31 at Miami or a threegame series in Washington from Aug. 1-3. The righthander has already made three minor league rehab starts totaling 8 ⅔ innings. He’s allowed an unearned run and five hits with 15 strikeouts and one walk. He went four innings during the most recent one last week for Triple-A Syracuse. It’s still unclear which affiliate deGrom will pitch for next. The 34-year-old deGrom was initially supposed to throw live batting practice Tuesday, but the outing was pushed back two days after he experienced muscle soreness in his pitching shoulder. DeGrom hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 7, 2021. He missed the second half of last season with right forearm tightness and a sprained elbow. Even without him, the Mets had a 2 ½-game lead in the NL East over the defending champion Braves as of Friday.
Hall of Fame: Six months after he got one of the most amazing phone calls in sports, David Ortiz is still awestruck at his good fortune. The former Red Sox slugger known affectionately as Big Papi will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. Maybe then baseball’s highest honor will finally sink in. “I still can’t believe it. This is like a dream come true,” the 46-year-old Ortiz said. “I grew up tough, man. I grew up tough. My childhood wasn’t that easy, but I had great parents to guide me and keep me away from trouble.” Ortiz hit 541 home runs in 20 big league seasons and helped the Red Sox win three World Series. He is just the 58th player selected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in his first year of eligibility, and he served as a designated hitter more than any previous inductee. Six Era Committee selections are also part of the Class of 2022. Twins teammates pitcher Jim Kaat and free-swinging slugger Tony Oliva, and late Dodger great Gil Hodges, who managed the Mets to their first World Series title in 1969, are among them. Also getting their due: Minnie Miñoso, a star with the White Sox in the 1950s; Buck O’Neil, who played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues and
was a tireless advocate for the game; and Bud Fowler, a pioneering Black player who grew up in Cooperstown in the 1860s and played in more than a dozen leagues. It’s a class with three Latino players and two Black players who helped pave the way for today’s stars, and three players with ties to the Twins. Minnesota holds a special place in Ortiz’s heart because of the friendship he developed with Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett — No. 34 just like Big Papi — before Ortiz was dealt to the Red Sox after six seasons.