Steven Matz has been throwing for a couple of weeks now without any pain in his elbow, after having surgery in October to remove a bone spur that caused him trouble last season.
Matz is convinced that he will pitcher better in 2017, as he has learned how to pitch through pain and to pitch at less than max effort all the time. Matz told John Harper of the New York Daily News, “I really feel like I learned a lot about myself as a pitcher. I learned that I don’t have to be going full-guns to be effective.”
Despite the bone spurs, Matz pitched beautifully at times last season. He had a 9-8 record with a 3.40 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 132 innings. In fact in May, Matz went 4-0 and only allowed five runs in 34.1 innings. Those numbers were good enough for Matz to be awarded Rookie of the Month for the month of May.
Matz was still bringing the heat in 2016 regardless of the bone spurs, he averaged 94.39 MPH on his fastball (slightly down from 94.57 MPH in 2015). Matz told Harper this about fastball mechanics, “Plus I realized you don’t have to muscle up so much to throw hard. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes you ease off a little and the ball still comes out the same. I think I’ll be more of a pitcher after going through that.”
Matz has proved that he can be a top of the rotation starter for the Mets, so maybe this injury was a good thing for him in the long-term. The Long-Island native is expected to start “ramping up” his throwing program and expects to be fully ready come February 12, when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Mets fans should expect to see a healthy and hopefully dominant Matz in 2017.
