Bryce Montes De Oca Headed For Imaging After Early Exit

One of the top candidate to fill out the New York Mets’ bullpen is scheduled to undergo imaging. After the game, manager Buck Showalter mentioned Bryce Montes de Oca‘s forearm as the potential ailment. The six-foot-seven flamethrower was one of two Mets (Starling Marte) to leave Sunday afternoon’s game early with injury.

In the ninth inning, de Oca loaded the bases via three walks before inducing a fly out to left field. He was then met on the mound by manager Buck Showalter, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, and the trainer before being removed. His fastball velocity dipped considerably during the outing, averaging only 97.7 MPH in lieu of his 100-MPH plus in previous outings.

Before Sunday’s ugly outing, de Oca seemed to position himself well to earn one of the remaining bullpen spots. The 27-year-old threw two scoreless outings with four strikeouts before today. His tantalizing 100-MPH plus fastball with extreme movement caught the eyes of many. If he is able to get this walk issues under control, he can very well be a very useful piece for New York this year.

Unfortunately, for now, it appears the Opening Day roster aspirations has been put on hold. As mentioned above, the next step for de Oca is imaging to determine the extent of what he suffered.