LAT’S SO METS!
Of course Noah likely out 2 months with muscle tear
Noah Syndergaard walks off the field Sunday in Washington and into the Hospital for Special Surgery (inset) in Manhattan on Monday morning when an MRI revealed the Mets star pitcher has a partially torn right lat muscle, an injury that can take 2-3 months to heal, doctors say.
ATLANTA — Acknowledging responsibility for the decision to allow Noah Syndergaard to pitch three days after being scratched with a sore biceps, general manager Sandy Alderson insisted Monday medical evidence indicates there was no connection with that soreness and the partial lat tear that landed the Mets ace on the disabled list.
“The doctor has said there wasn’t any connection, there isn’t any connection, between what happened and a possible biceps injury, so that’s all I can go on,” Alderson said before the Mets began their four-game series with the Braves with a 7-5 win in their first visit to Sun Trust Park.
“At the same time that question was specifically asked and the answer was, ‘No,’ that there was not a connection. Now that’s an opinion — but coming from a pretty knowledgeable source.”
Syn der ga a rd left Sunday’ s game in Washington in the second inning, after clutching at his side following a pitch. An MRI exam performed Monday in New York revealed Syndergaard suffered a partial tear of his lat. He was placed on the 10-day disabled list, but his absence will be much longer.
“I don’t think this period is going to be measured in days. I think it’s going to be measured in weeks,” said Alderson, who declined to speculate on a time frame other than it will be a “a considerable amount of time.”
Every case is different. But Dr. Umer Dasti, a New Jersey-based orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and shoulder injuries, estimated a partial tear could lead to a pitcher being out “two to three months.” Dasti spoke in generalities and not specifically about Syndergaard.
“The latissimus dorsi is a muscle that attaches to the upper arm. It connects the back to the upper arm. It is integral to pitching and the injury usually occurs during the middle phase of a pitch, during the intense portion of a pitching motion,” Dasti said, noting the different types of lat injuries. “Typically, the majority of these injuries are not where the muscle detaches from the bone.
“If it’s a partial tear, I would put it around two to three months,” Dasti said. “Depending on the results on an MRI, a partial tear sounds like good news.”
According to an analysis of the treatment of lat injuries in the American Journal of Orthopedics, for those who chose “conservative treatment” the averaged “return to pitching was 99.8 days” with surgically treated injuries at 140 days.
Either way, don’t count on Syndergaard wielding Thor’s hammer for a while. Steven Matz, whom the Mets hope to get back from elbow woes at the end of the month along with Seth Lugo (partial UCL tear), missed two months with a lat injury. Alderson, though, said there was no comparison.
Alderson spent much of his 15 minute-plus press briefing defending the Mets’ informationgathering process plus team doctors who“are among the two or three most respected in all the United States, if not the world, when it comes to orthopedics.”
A point of contention was Syndergaard declining last week to have an MRI for the biceps soreness that pushed back his start. The 2016 All-Star said he felt better and the Mets did not force the exam, so Syndergaard pitched Sunday.
“I sincerely believe that Noah felt he was fine. There’d be no reason for him to say otherwise,” Alderson said.
Next stop, potential disaster.
“Like I tell the players, sometimes you’ re allowed 24 hours to be upset and you got to move forward. We got to come out and play today and not worry about what happened,” said man a ge r Terry Collins, who stressed the hardest part was “watching it happen.”
Syndergaard’s injury followed the case of Yoenis Cespedes who was fighting a sore hamstring, sat three games, then played— and pulled his hamstring.
Alderson said typically team brass ask a player if he can play. Almost always, the answer is yes. They weigh options.
“We knew [Cespedes] was susceptible to this,” Alderson said. “But at the same time we can’t put somebody on the disabled list who says he’s not hurt.
“Let me make clear, it was my decision for Noah to pitch. It was with input from a variety of different sources, including Noah himself. The MRI was not dismissed out of hand simply because Noah said he wouldn’t do it. I made the decision based on the most recent medical opinion I’d gotten there wasn’t any connection between the injury and the purported discomfort in his biceps.”
A contrite Syndergaard posted a long message on Twitter after the Mets’ win, which read, in part, “I HATE not competing and being with my teammates, but I promise I will come away from this experience stronger and with a renewed passion and respect for the game. I LOVE this team, I LOVE this city, and I’m sorry I can’t be on the field during this time for all of you.”