The Metropolitan: Hoping Cookie doesn’t crumble
Catching up on Carlos Carrasco’s elbow & the day’s news
Good Morning,
Today we’ll talk about #2 starter Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco’s elbow soreness. But we start with the day’s news.
⏰ Catch me up in 60(ish) seconds…
🤕 OH NO: A day after the Mets said Carrasco would ramp up in live BP instead of real games, they revealed the right-hander experienced soreness in his right elbow after throwing on Monday. He also has some body aches from his second COVID-19 vaccine shot.
NOT ALARMED: “It is something that he’s felt in the past, and [after] just a few days [off] from throwing and treatment, we'll bring him back,” manager Luis Rojas told reporters. “We expect him to be back facing batters by the end of next week.”
More on this in a bit…
🏆 CELEBRATE: As we’ve discussed, the Mets desperately need to improve their defensive play. So, manager Luis Rojas had them spend their off day Wednesday doing that — with a twist: the skipper challenged his team to execute 27 consecutive outs without an error, and act like the last out would win them the World Series. The players completed the drill perfectly… and celebrated accordingly:
💰 OFFICIAL: The Mets announced they have reached contract agreements with 15 of their pre-arbitration eligible players. They technically “renewed” the contracts of Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil, which means they didn’t reach an agreement on their 2021 salaries, but each player will likely receive a modest raise on their 2020 amount.
🎁 GIFT: Looking to give back to his school, Florida’s Montverde Academy, Francisco Lindor donated $1 million toward construction of a state-of-the-art building that will serve over 200 middle school children.
LINDOR: “Ever since I began [as a] professional athlete, I've been giving back and always thinking about how I'm going to help the next generation,” Lindor said after the virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony.
🛑 CAUTIOUS: Dominic Smith has yet to play a game in left field this spring. The Mets are playing it safe after he suffered a stress fracture in his left foot in 2019 due to an increased workload.
Should we be worried about Cookie Carrasco?
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
I imagine many text exchanges between Mets fans went something like the one between my dad and me yesterday:
ME: Carrasco has some elbow soreness, but doesn’t sound like a big deal.
MY DAD: That means he’s out for the season.
Mets fans have seen this story unfold before: Player is pulled from the lineup for an undisclosed reason; team later reveals the player has a very minor injury; team holds player out of additional games for “precautionary” reasons; player has MRI; player is out for the season. (We’re still waiting for Carlos Delgado to return from his day-to-day injury. Any day now!)
So while I understand that fans are still recovering from Jed Lowrie, perhaps with Mr. Carrasco things will be different. To back up this point, read a tweet from almost one year ago to the day:
Sound familiar? Carrasco would eventually get an MRI to rule out any structural damage, and after gaining several months to work himself back to full health during the pandemic, he ended up making 12 starts for the Indians in the shortened 2020 season, rebounding nicely off his 2019 campaign that was interrupted by his cancer diagnosis.
With manager Luis Rojas telling reporters, “he's telling us that this is something that he has gone through,” Mets fans can feel some assurance that Carrasco is telling his new team the truth.
This was from Spring Training in 2017:
Indians manager Terry Francona noted that Carrasco underwent an MRI exam earlier in the day, revealing some swelling, but no structural damage in his right elbow. As a result, Francona said the team is leaning toward skipping Carrasco at least once in the spring rotation.
It’s like his right elbow has nine lives or exists in that Groundhog Day movie. This is the second consecutive spring he has had issues with it, with last year’s turning into nothing. He also experienced swelling in 2017, before having his best season in the majors. And in 2018, he only needed a short stint on the DL after taking a Joe Mauer line drive off the same elbow.
Meanwhile, he has pretty much pitched every fifth day since 2015, with two years ago being the justifiable exception due to his battle with chronic myeloid leukemia.
While it’s not ideal to have one of their top starters sidelined this early in the season, the Mets can weather the storm. We will talk in more detail about their rotation depth throughout the spring. But, for now, take a deep breath and have some faith that Cookie’s elbow has a few more lives left in it.
⚾️ The Texas Rangers plan to play in front of a full capacity crowd for their final 2 exhibition games and Opening Day, per Levi Weaver.
⚾️ A sports gambler faces up to five years in federal prison for sending death threats to Tampa Bay Rays players in 2019.
⚾️ Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto has tested positive for COVID-19.
⚾️ The Miami Marlins will use drones to disinfect their park this season.
🔗 How one man worried he infected entire Mets roster, by Joel Sherman, NY Post: “There was no certainty regarding when [Donovan] Mitchell Jr. had contracted the virus. Mitchell Sr. had been with his son at the Garden, and he had set up tickets through the Knicks at a lesser cost for about 65 Mets employees, whom he had been around at the game. He had then traveled back to Port St. Lucie. Now, after learning his son’s diagnosis, Mitchell mentally ran through pretty much every player on the Mets roster and, yep, he had contact with all of them.”
🔗 How close are Mets' top prospects to Queens? Jacob Resnick (SNY) predicts where top prospects Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Matt Allan, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and others will start the season.
And we leave you with this video of prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong talking about his first Spring Training with the Mets…
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LOL
Yes. We are still waiting on that Delgado update.