Megill ready to pitch on Friday or Saturday
SAN DIEGO – Tylor Megill is raring to go. Megill, who joined the Mets in his home state of California on Tuesday, said his right biceps tendinitis has been completely behind him for about the past week and a half. He said at Petco Park that his body feels strong and that he’s good to go for an upcoming return to the rotation.
“Velo is there. Stuff’s there,” Megill said. “Body is telling me that I feel well. For the most part, just listening to my body and it’s telling me I’m ready to go.”
The Mets are getting closer to committing to a start date for the right-hander, who believes he can throw around 70-75 pitches in his first outing back from the injured list. Mets manager Buck Showalter said Megill is penciled in to start Friday or Saturday against the Angels.
Until then, Megill will go through his usual bullpen work on Wednesday. He said his right biceps injury was likely a result of his arm being overworked, so the Mets are likely to keep a close eye on his workload at least at the onset of his return to the starting five.
CYCLE CHARM
Showalter said he learned on Tuesday that he’s watched five players hit for the cycle while he’s been manager. Those five players are Tony Fernandez (Sept. 3, 1995, Yankees), Luis
Gonzalez (July 5, 2000, Diamondbacks), Mark Teixeira (Aug. 14, 2004, Rangers), Gary Matthews (Sept. 13, 2006, Rangers), and Eduardo Escobar (June 6, 2022, Mets).
The only stop in Showalter’s managerial career that one of his players didn’t hit for the cycle was in Baltimore, where he managed from 2010-2018.
“I remember all of them, but not acutely,” Showalter said.
DAY OFF FOR CANHA
Mark Canha had the day off on Tuesday against right-hander Yu Darvish and the Padres because Showalter said he wanted to give outfielder Nick Plummer some more playing time. Plummer was called up last month shortly after Travis Jankowski hit the injured list with a left 4th metacarpal fracture. He has four hits, including two home runs and a double, five RBI and three runs scored in five games and three starts in that span.
“It’s important, I want to get Plum out there,” Showalter said. “Get him some at-bats out there. Maybe we can get an ambush out of him tonight.”
Canha’s day off came after yet another multi-hit performance on Monday in the series opener at Petco Park.Over his last eight games, Canha is batting .393 (11-for-28) with eight runs, two doubles, two RBI, two walks with a .452 on-base percentage, a .464 slugging percentage and a .916 OPS.