ATLANTA — Suddenly, the Mets’ pitching depth has been thinned.
Tylor Megill joined Kodai Senga on the injured list Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the Mets’ series in Atlanta against the Braves. The right-hander was placed on the 15-day IL with a right elbow sprain, with right-hander Justin Garza being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse to take his spot on the roster.
Best case scenario: The inflammation in Megill’s elbow subsides in 7-10 days, which would then allow him to work toward a return around the one-month mark. But the Mets are hesitant to specify a timeline until the inflammation in his elbow is gone.
But for now, the Mets will need a spot-starter to take his place Friday night for the series-opener in Philadelphia. They expect to make a decision for Friday later in the week.
“There are a lot of names that we’re considering,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday at Truist Park. “So yeah, we’ll get there in the next day or two.”
You can cross two names off of your list, right-hander Frankie Montas and left-hander Sean Manaea. The two are nearing the end of their rehab assignments, but aren’t quite where the Mets want them to be yet. Montas is the closest to a return, making one more rehab start Wednesday with Triple-A Syracuse, which would rule him out of action for Friday.
The Mets are hoping to put him in the rotation, but acknowledge that the results they’ve seen during his minor league rehab assignment haven’t been great. Montas is 0-2 with a 13.17 ERA over five starts (20 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings, nine walks, 10 strikeouts).
“We’ve still got to wait. I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Mendoza said. “Let’s see how he does tomorrow. Hopefully he throws the ball well, and not only that, he feels well, and then we have a decision. And hopefully he gets through tomorrow, we see some good results, he bounces back, and then he’s part of the rotation. That would be the ideal scenario.”
Over the weekend, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns cited mechanical issues when asked about Montas. The veteran right-hander strained his lat the first week of spring training, so the Mets understood that he would need significant time to build up to being able to pitch a regular-season workload, and they think the mechanical issues could just be part of the process.
“I think physically, we’re probably trending in the right direction and now it’s just getting him back into the rhythm,” Stearns said Friday. “This is very similar to a spring training ramp-up, where you try not to focus on results too much early in the ramp. Then, as you get a little bit later in the ramp, you’d like to start seeing outs. And I think that’s where Frankie is right now.”
Mendoza watched the last bullpen Montas threw at Citi Field. While Montas felt fine physically, there were some signs of mechanical issues.
“Not moving well mechanically on the mound as he’s going through the delivery,” Mendoza said. “I watched his last bullpen at Citi Field, and he felt really good. So [pitching coach Jeremy Hefner] continues to work with him. He liked what he saw mechanically from him, even though the results weren’t there the last time he pitched. But hopefully tomorrow, we see some good results from him.”
Megill felt his “pulling” in his elbow during his Saturday start against the Tampa Bay Rays. It was a particularly brutal start for Megill, who went 3 2/3 innings and gave up three earned runs. An MRI showed a significant amount of inflammation, but no damage to the ulnar collateral ligament.
“I want to be healthy so every start I can go out and perform,” Megill said. “But obviously it started bugging and it really affected my stuff. I didn’t know what it was. It’s not too bad of news, considering elbow things, so I’m just kind of take time to get healthy.”
The Mets have used right-hander Blade Tidwell, a top pitching prospect, as a spot-starter once this year, but haven’t needed one otherwise. Montas, Manaea and Paul Blackburn were all injured in spring training, but the five starters the Mets opened the season with — Senga, Megill, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, and Griffin Canning — have all been healthy until last week, when Senga strained his right hamstring Thursday against the Washington Nationals.
Tidwell last pitched June 15, so if the Mets want to give him extra rest they could bring him to Philadelphia. Brandon Sproat, another top prospect, is set to start for Syracuse on Wednesday.
