A spring training star, Mets reliever Sam Coonrod now just happy to be healthy
Sam Coonrod of the Mets delivers a pitch against the Cardinals in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium on Sunday in St Louis, Mo. Credit: Getty Images/Dilip Vishwanat
ATLANTA — When Sam Coonrod bounced off the field and into the dugout Monday night, having just buzzed through the top of Atlanta’s lineup — Ronald Acuna Jr., Michael Harris II, Austin Riley — on 13 pitches, posting a scoreless outing for a second day in a row, manager Buck Showalter saw it in the reliever’s face: That meant something.
Coonrod, perhaps most intriguing of the unproven arms in the Mets’ post-trade deadline bullpen, is back with the team after recovering from a severe right lat tear suffered during spring training. Through four shutout appearances, including a pair Sunday and Monday that represented his first time pitching on consecutive days, a major milestone, he has flashed glimpses of the ability the Mets thought he had all along.
The question now becomes whether he can keep it up — and stay on the mound.
“The question with Sam is never about stuff,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said, using the baseball lingo to describe the quality or effectiveness of a pitcher’s pitches. “He has stuff. He has big-league stuff. He has closer stuff. It’s just always health-related, right? And being able to stay on the field. We’re going to do everything in our power to challenge him but also make sure that he finishes the year healthy.”
Those challenges, he explained, will come in the form exposing Coonrod to as many situations as possible over the next month and a half. The Mets want to see him against lefthanded hitters and righthanded ones, in more back-to-back appearances, multi-inning spots, “maybe some” late-and-close spots, Hefner said.
Basically, the Mets want to push Coonrod, a righthander who will turn 31 next month, as part of their search for valuable 2024 pieces.
The health part, though, is significant. Coonrod had a career 5.27 ERA in 105 appearances across parts of four seasons with the Giants and Phillies. When the Mets claimed him off waivers from Philadelphia in February, he was fresh off a season that he mostly missed because of a rotator cuff tear that had bothered him for years.
Finally feeling good physically, Coonrod was a star of spring training, stringing together five scoreless appearances, positioning himself well in the vast competition for a couple of spots in the Opening Day bullpen.
But when injuries thinned that group to the point of winners winning by default, Coonrod was among the fallen.
“It felt like if someone punched you right in the back of the tricep,” Coonrod recalled of his mid-March discomfort. “It hurts, but I think I’m going to be all right. Then you realize, well, actually, I’m not going to be all right for a little while.”
His right lat had an 80% tear. It was going to be a while.
For the next four months, as Coonrod toiled as a rehabbing player based out of Port St. Lucie, Florida, Showalter offered periodically — often unsolicited — what became a familiar sentiment: Man, it would be nice if Sam Coonrod was here. He was probably going to make the team, you know, if he didn’t get hurt. He’d really impressed the coaching staff. They really could use a reliever like him right now.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Showalter said Monday night of Coonrod after a series of injury updates. “It’s a reminder of what we’ve been missing there all year.”
Showalter followed up Tuesday afternoon, again unprompted: “If you add him and Edwin (Diaz) to our bullpen, it’s a whole different dynamic.”
The next month-plus amounts to an audition for Coonrod, among so many others, as the Mets look ahead to next year. He doesn’t quite view it that way, though. He’s just happy to pitch.
“I try not to put too many things on my mind whenever I’m out there. I try to just compete, abandon all concern for everything besides competing,” he said. “You’re always (more or less on a tryout). if you’re playing baseball, it’s constantly an audition. It’s just how the game is.
“Going through another rehab was terrible at the start. I worked so hard through the previous year, then it happens again. But whenever you get back like this, it makes it all worth it.”
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.
