Taijuan Walker Placed on IL, DeGrom to Make a Rehab Start

Another day, anoth-, well — you know the drill.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Mets saw their injured list grow to 14 players. And this time, it was pitcher Taijuan Walker, who joined the IL club with left side tightness.

Although Walker said this was something that had been nagging him in his last few starts, it got worse in Monday’s outing, forcing him out after just three innings of work.

Now, Walker lands on the IL and the Mets will be in need of another starter to take his spot. They have already been doing bullpen games every fifth day, but with Jacob deGrom still on the IL as well, they almost certainly will be calling up a starter from the minors to replace him.

Potential names, who could take Walker’s place in the rotation are left-hander Thomas Szapucki and right-hander Jordan Yamamoto, who have both spent the season with Triple-A Syracuse.

In the meantime, the Mets did get some promising news regarding another injured starter in their rotation. And that’s their ace in deGrom, who is set to make a rehab start for the St. Lucie Mets at Single-A on Thursday.

If all goes well with deGrom, we should see him back with the big league club in no time, which would be a huge boost for a Mets rotation that is currently without two of their three best starters.