Steven Matz to miss several weeks due to a lat injury
The New York Mets are the best reminder that baseball is a cruel game. Just this season, the team lost one of their prized young pitchers to Tommy John surgery, their closer to a suspension and their franchise player to a potentially career-threatening back injury.
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Unfortunately for the Mets, and their fans, the hits keep on coming.
That’s right, rookie Steven Matz is the latest Mets player to fall victim to playing for the franchise.
Matz has only started two games for the club, but was looking like a solid addition to the rotation. Through his two starts, Matz posted a 1.32 ERA, with a 14:5 strikeout to walk ratio. While the team does have some pitching depth, losing Matz for a significant amount of time is less than ideal.
It was initially unclear how long Matz would be sidelined due to the injury. While Martino heard several weeks, Adam Rubin of ESPN received different information.
The Mets eventually spoke on the matter, clearing things up a few minutes after the chaos.
So, yeah, Matz is definitely going to miss several weeks. Our goal here, however, isn’t to pick on beat reporters, it’s to point out how awful the Mets have been about reporting injuries this season.
That chart comes from an article published by the Wall Street Journal, and highlights just how inept the team has been this year when announcing injuries. Every player on the list received a strong report initially, but then wound up missing far more time than projected.
Given that chart, it’s not a surprise that a source would say the issue is “not serious.” In fairness, it’s a lat injury and not an arm issue, but when a pitcher isn’t going to throw for at least three months, that’s much more serious than him just missing a start or two. Once Matz is able to throw, you have to assume he’ll need to build up his arm strength again and potentially make a rehab start. This could drag on much longer than three weeks.
The goal is to under-promise and then over-deliver, but the Mets mantra always seems to be the opposite. Matz may be the latest victim of that approach.
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For the Mets, it’s just another example of the team falling victim to Murphy’s law. Even putting a player with the last name “Murphy” on the roster couldn’t save them from despair. It’s starting to look like nothing can.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
