CARRASCO DELAY
Righty, out all season with hamstring injury, is put on 60-day IL and can’t return until May 31 at earliest
Carlos Carrasco may not have suffered a setback in his rehab from a torn right hamstring injury, but he’s on the back end of the 6-8 week range the Mets had initially projected for the pitcher.
Carrasco was transferred to the 60-day injured list on Thursday, backdated to March, making him wait for his Mets debut until May 31 at the earliest. Before his transfer to the 60-day
IL, the Mets had repeatedly advertised Carrasco would slot into the rotation in the second week of May.
The club isn’t defining Carrasco’s delay as a setback, though he is ramping up slowly.
According to a source familiar with Carrasco’s rehab schedule, the Mets knew there was a chance he would be on the later end of his mapped-out progression. Once the Mets’ medical staff reassessed Carrasco’s progress as part of a planned checkpoint Thursday, the team concluded he would need the rest of the month to continue his rehab.
“There’s some things we still want to test,” said Mets manager Luis Rojas. “Pitching, competing, game-speed stuff, everything that’s going to come into play when he’s activated with us.”
As recently as Tuesday, reports on Carrasco’s rehab had been very encouraging. The 34-yearold pitched six innings in a simulated game at Port St. Lucie on Tuesday and he was scheduled to make his next rehab start on Sunday, likely with a minor-league affiliate so he could face competition before joining the Mets. After Sunday’s rehab start, it sounded like Carrasco would be ready to join the Mets during their road trip in Tampa.
Rather than making that Sunday start, Carrasco will not pitch and rest instead. Rojas said that rehab start was scratched due to additional “tests,” but the skipper was vague about what exactly the Mets saw in Carrasco’s hamstring that caused his transfer to 60-day IL. Either way, the team definitely wants Carrasco to face another uniform in one or two minor-league outings before he joins the big-league rotation.
Carrasco tore his hamstring while running and conditioning in mid-March at Mets camp. He was already working his way back from elbow soreness then — several steps behind his rotation-mates without even having made a Grapefruit League start. He enjoyed a standout 2020 with the Indians, staying healthy and pitching a 2.91 ERA over 12 starts and 68 innings in the shortened 60-game season.
DEGROM SUNDAY?
Jacob deGrom, scratched from his Tuesday start with right lat inflammation, could make his next start on Sunday at Citi Field against the Diamondbacks. The Mets avoided placing deGrom on the 10-day injured list, hoping