Lucchesi learns he needs Tommy John surgery

of growth for him,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “There’s a lot of people going through the same process that are on this team and that can give a lot of good advice on what to do throughout this time and how to face it and how to be better when he gets out of it.”

Lucchesi, of late, had made the Mets better. The tough blow to their rotation means the front office is looking for starting pitching both internally and externally, per Scott.

Though the July 31 trade deadline is weeks away and the Mets need help now, they will likely need rotation reinforcements from the farm system to get them through in the short term.

Scott said in addition to Jerad Eickhoff, who pitched four scoreless innings against the Braves on Monday in his Mets debut, Triple-A pitchers Thomas Szapucki and Tylor Megill are both candidates to slot into the rotation before the club makes a potentially significant longterm move.

“Realistically, we’re still in June,” Scott said. “It’s not even July yet, so we’re still looking at a market that, the prices tend to be pretty high until you get closer to that deadline. I don’t think it’s different, so we’re going to explore all options. I’m on the phone a lot still trying to see what is out there, what’s available to us and figure out what the acquisition costs are for any players.”

Scott talked about how hard the Mets will push for a frontline starter before or at the trade deadline: “We’re going to explore all options, so yeah, obviously it would be great to add a player who could impact the team. But also, there’s value in finding players that can stabilize the team as well. We think we’ve got a good club with all the players that we have. Sometimes the stabilizer is the more proven thing to do both short and long term.”

The Mets have held onto first place for the past six weeks and, in that time, Lucchesi had given them six outings in which he has allowed one or fewer earned runs. Under team control until 2024, Lucchesi was pitching like he found the solution that would allow him to be a viable long-term option. At least in the immediate future, the Mets will pivot to their internal arms in Szapucki, Megill and Eickhoff hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again.