Mets put reliever Drew Smith on injured list with sprained right elbow
Mets pitcher Drew Smith reacts as Miami Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. rounds the bases on his solo home run during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Thursday, June 13, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Another day brought another potentially major blow to the Mets’ bullpen.
They put Drew Smith on the injured list with a sprained right elbow Wednesday, the announcement coming less than an hour before first pitch against the Yankees.
A sprain is a stretching or tearing of a ligament. Manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets’ 12-2 win that they did not know the severity of Smith’s sprain.
The best-case scenario would be a mere few weeks with Smith on the sidelines. The worst-case scenario — if the injury is serious and involves the ulnar collateral ligament — would be Tommy John surgery, which would cost him a full year (heading into the offseason in which he is scheduled to be a free agent).
“Unfortunate. Feel for him,” Mendoza said. “We’re still gathering all the information. It was a quick MRI right before the game. We’ll see what we got the next couple of days.”
In Smith’s absence, the Mets called up righthander Ty Adcock from Triple-A Syracuse. He appeared in a dozen games for the Mariners last season. In Triple-A this season, during stints with three organizations, Adcock posted a 5.82 ERA and 1.94 WHIP, better lately with Syracuse.
That transaction was the outcome of an unusual scene earlier Wednesday: Smith throwing on his street clothes about three hours before the game and rushing out the door, clearly with some place to be. He declined to comment in the moment.
Mendoza explained that Smith had experienced — for a second day in a row — tightness in his forearm, which sometimes is a sign of elbow trouble. So they sent him for an MRI, which revealed the sprain.
Mendoza said then, before the results came in, that the Mets were “not too concerned.”
This episode came immediately after Smith’s issues Sunday. Entering on no notice when Edwin Diaz was ejected, Smith had trouble warming up. Mendoza pulled him after three batters (12 pitches).
That also was his fifth appearance in eight days, a significant workload in his first weeks back from missing more than a month with a shoulder injury.
“He didn’t pinpoint anything specific on Sunday,” Mendoza said. “He was just having a hard time getting going. Then yesterday and today again, there’s just some tightness there. That’s what we got.”
Nothing from Diaz
Although a Mets spokesman said Tuesday that Diaz would speak to reporters Wednesday, that did not happen. It was not clear whether the change of plans was a result of the Mets preventing him from speaking or Diaz declining to speak.
Diaz has not commented since MLB suspended him Monday for violating the foreign-substance policy.
Pitching plans
For at least a few more days, the Mets will stick with their normal rotation: Jose Quintana on Friday, Tylor Megill on Saturday and Luis Severino on Sunday against the Astros.
It gets trickier after that, with the Mets potentially needing to add an extra reliever to account for Diaz’s (and now Smith’s) absence, but also loosely planning on bringing prospect Christian Scott back to the majors.
Houston will counter with Ronel Blanco and Framber Valdez in the first two games. Former Mets ace Justin Verlander, who is on the IL with neck discomfort, will not accompany the team to New York.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.