Jacob deGrom likely will miss his next start due to a sore right arm.
Mets manager Terry Collins earlier had danced around the bad news _ a little jig he's all too familiar with in the Mets' injury-ravaged season _ but it came to light soon enough.
DeGrom, who was seen motioning to trainer Ray Ramirez after leaving the game Thursday night, is suffering from inflammation in his right pitching forearm and likely will miss his next start, the Mets announced Friday. A precautionary MRI on the forearm came back negative and there is no structural damage, the team said. The team said deGrom experienced soreness in his start Thursday.
"DeGrom will take medication to relieve the soreness and will resume throwing when the discomfort subsides," the team said. And though the Mets didn't provide an abundance of information, Collins made it clear that something was amiss in his pregame news conference.
"I learned a lot about it," Collins said when asked about deGrom's health. "We have no news for you at this moment ... I can't really discuss that just yet."
DeGrom, who allowed three earned runs in five innings Thursday on eight days' rest, said he's been struggling with his mechanics and could not locate his fastball in the way he's accustomed. Collins said deGrom had lost some of the late movement on his pitches. DeGrom insisted he was physically fine Thursday, and that some of the problem had to do with his landing leg veering toward first base. Still, there were strong signs that all was not right. There was talk that deGrom was fatigued, and his two starts before Thursday were troubling _ he gave up 12 hits to the Cardinals and 13 to the Giants in just 92/3 innings. Things looked better Thursday, but by the fifth inning, he'd experienced a dip in his velocity and had walked four batters.
