You Can Add Yoenis Cespedes And Jacob deGrom To The Pile Of Injured Mets At Spring Training
MLB- Yoenis Cespedes and Jacob deGrom joined the list of Mets players slowed by aches and pains early in camp, showing up on the team’s injury report with “mild shoulder soreness” and “lower back stiffness,” respectively.
Cespedes, who hit a long home run in his Grapefruit League debut Sunday, is day to day. deGrom’s back issue was not serious enough to prevent him from participating in drills, including a throwing program, with his teammates on Tuesday. But the Mets have not yet slotted him in to start a Grapefruit League game; initially, that was due to the time he took off for the birth of his daughter.
More sinister was the news on first baseman Dominic Smith, whose MRI confirmed a strained right quadriceps. Smith will return to baseball activities as tolerated, though his absence from the first part of camp could hinder his chances of making the Opening Day roster.
The hits keep on coming! We aren’t even in March yet and the Mets injured list is already in midseason form (gotta get all of my In Midseason Form jokes in before Opening Day when they are lumped in with the hilarioussss On Pace For jokes). Plus we haven’t had the inevitable Steven Matz injury or Zack Wheeler setback(s) yet. Wonderful!
But you know what? I can’t even blame the Mets in this. I know I blogged about the Mets being cursed yesterday. But I think the real answer to all these injury shenanigans can be pinned on Ray Ramirez. Yeah I know we fired Ramirez the human after last season. But the Ghost of Ray Ramirez is clearly much more powerful and dangerous than any mere mortal. Anyone with a brain knows how strong ghosts are once they have been vanquished. Obi-Wan told us that shit over 40 years ago.
Yet myself and all the idiot Mets fans were dancing in the streets once Ramirez got canned. Thinking everything would wash away and get better overnight like Pride Rock after Scar got torn to shreds by the hyenas. Nope! Different season, same Mets.
And I don’t want to hear how these are all minor injuries except for maybe Dom Smith, who already seems like a long shot to beat out old man Adrian Gonzalez for the starting 1st base job. Mets injuries seldom stay minor. They grow and fester like a herpe on an unnamed actors lip, waiting for the perfect time to reappear. It’s one thing if those injuries are hitting bench players or guys in the bottom half of the lineup. It’s quite another once they start happening to guys that may be playing in the All-Star Game come July. I try to be the optimistic Mets blogger here at Barstool, but every morning #MetsTwitter gives me a reason to go to Panic Citi. Luckily there is a Spring Training game on today and I’ll be able to talk myself that the Mets are a playoff team as long as no player on the 40 man roster goes down like a ton of bricks.