New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom talked to reporters on Thursday afternoon about the back tightness that led him to get an MRI. The MRI showed nothing that concerned the Mets and they consider him day-to-day.
DeGrom left an intrasquad game on Tuesday after one inning after telling trainers he felt like his back couldn’t loosen up. The back-to-back Cy Young winner said he was being overly cautious, “If it was a regular season game, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
He described the tightness as “out of the blue” and could’ve been from simply sleeping wrong. The 32-year-old noted that he still expects to pitch on Opening Day against the Braves next Friday.
DeGrom is slated to pitch on Sunday in the Mets exhibition game against the Yankees. He said he would like to get to 60-65 pitches in that game, which would likely mean about an 85-pitch limit in his first start of the regular season.
The right-hander had a 2.05 ERA and and 524 strikeouts in 421 innings over the past two seasons.
