Steven Matz Faces Another Issue with His Elbow

By Djack

NY Daily News- "With Opening Day just eight days away, the Mets are already dealing with a pitcher injury.

Steven Matz was scratched from his scheduled Monday start because of "tenderness" and "irritation" in his surgically repaired left elbow, Sandy Alderson announced Sunday. The Mets’ lefthander has been examined by team doctors and reassured it is not his ulnar collateral ligament, which was replaced in 2010 during Tommy John surgery.

Matz described himself as not worried and said he will throw long toss on Monday to begin a throwing program.

“It’s just a little tenderness, just a little setback,” Matz said, indicating it could be a side effect of his offseason surgery to have a bone spur removed. “We’re in spring training. You have that luxury of just trying to take a little off the throttle.” 

The Mets GM said that team has been aware of this issue at least since Matz’s last start on Wednesday, but they are not “concerned about it at the moment.” Alderson said that Matz is on medication but has not had an injection for the discomfort yet.

“He’s got a little tenderness in his elbow and a irritation and he’s got to work that out,” Alderson said. “We don’t think it’s anything significant, but at the same time it bothers him a little bit on extension, so he’s not going to pitch tomorrow."

Just when Mets fans were finally regaining confidence about their upcoming season, this happens. Nothing like an early injury before any games have been played to set you back already, that always sucks. Especially when you've been trying to get your rotation full of young studs all healthy at the same time to see how good your pitching staff can truly be. Well people, this is the Mets, so anything orthodox or easy just doesn't happen within the walls of that organization. It's nothing serious yet according to the reports, however anyone who pays attention to the Mets knows this is only going to end badly.

Now, with all that being said if you're a Mets fan it's no time to panic. The least of your worries should be a pitcher getting hurt. Yes, injuries obviously suck and no one wants to see one of their young stud players be plauged by injuries, but if there's one thing the Mets never run out of, it's starting pitching. Let's not forget the Mets have Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman that proved last year they could be quality starters in the big leagues. Zack Wheeler is also back for the Mets this year, so even if Matz will be forced to miss some starts at the beginning of the regular season the Mets will have plenty of ammunation to not miss a beat until he gets back.

The last thing anyone wants is a young stud to get injured though, it's not even about the he's missing time so he's not helping out the team aspect. It's more of a he's missing time he's not getting any better or developing properly aspect that really hurts the franchise. When you have a prospect with big potential the last thing you need is for injuries to destroy his developmental stages, and I think that's where most of the concern is with Matz right now. Also, let's not forget to mention how many problems his elbow has already had, the absolutely last thing you need is to keep piling onto that list because before long that elbow won't be able to throw anymore. Matz will take some time off, hopefully be back for the start of the season, and most importantly will have a long prosperous career.