The start of Justin Verlander’s New York Mets career will have to wait after the team unexpectedly placed him on the injured list ahead of their Opening Day game against the Miami Marlins.
The 2023 New York Mets season hasn’t even started yet and they have dealt with a slew of injuries. The most notable of which being the season-ending patellar tear that closer Edwin Diaz suffered two weeks ago at the World Baseball Classic. Well, they incurred another “major” setback on Thursday and it has to do with their biggest acquisition this winter, Justin Verlander.
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Just hours before the start of their season, the team announced that their $86 million addition was headed to the injured list with a “teres major strain” in his side. The organization also added that “He will continue throwing at moderate intensity and we will rescan in a week.”
Following the news, general manager Billy Eppler spoke to the media and gave some details on the situation.
“Last night, post-workout, Justin told us about feeling a little something in his side. We sent him for an MRI this morning, got the results, had multiple doctors look at it and it showed a low-grade teres major strain. The good news is he’ll continue to throw, and in about a week, on the day of our home opener, we’ll scan him again and we’ll provide an update.”
– Billy Eppler
Justin Verlander stats (2022): 18-4 record, 1.75 ERA, 0.829 WHIP, 185 Ks, 175.1 IP
After the team’s GM spoke to reporters, Justin Verlander had his own scrum with media in Miami and explained that the strain was something that had been “lingering” for some time, but he originally thought it was just normal discomfort that pitchers often deal with in spring training each year.
“Looking back, it’s something that was kind of lingering. But it’s spring training and it’s very normal to have to work through some stuff. I thought it was something I was working through. In my last start, I was able to pitch through that. In my bullpen yesterday, I still felt a teeny bit of something. When I thought I was over it and I still felt something I connected the dots. My velocity was down in my last start and that was really the main [sign of an issue.]”
However, Justin Verlander was fairly positive about his recovery from the strain and called the situation a “second-best case” scenario and was relieved it wasn’t an issue with his latissimus dorsi muscle.