Zack Wheeler finally got a chance to speak with reporters and he did acknowledge he will have Tommy John surgery on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
Dr. David Altchek will preform the surgery in New York, and Wheeler expects to return sometime around June of 2016, or about 14 months after having the surgery.
“Of course, I’m nervous about it, but you’ve got to do it and have that mindset when you’re coming back that you’re going to be 100 percent and better than you were before,” Wheeler said.
“I can’t complain about how the Mets handled me last year innings wise,” Wheeler continued. “I don’t have any complaints at all about how they handled me.”
“Stop making up stuff and stop being doctors,” Wheeler told reporters. “Everybody thinks that they’re doctors or specialists at this point in time, but you might want to get the facts first before reporting.”
“Honestly, I’ve had pain in that spot in my elbow since I got drafted — since before I got drafted,” Wheeler said. “It just happened to really flare up and be a little more painful last year, but not enough to where I was actually like, ‘Oh my gosh.'”
Wheeler said he was surprised to learn of his ligament tear. “I cried a little,” he admitted. He was called into the office my Mets COO Jeff Wilpon told him the news it was a UCL tear.
Wheeler said it was the August 15 start against Cubs was when the pain started to progressively get worse. He tossed a season high 120 pitches in that outing.
Besides the torn UCL, Wheeler said offseason MRIs revealed that he had a torn tendon which resulted in a calcium deposits on the bone. He said he first knew about the torn tendon after the MRI in January, and that the bone spurs were revealed after an MRI in September. He had two Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injections in the offseason to try to aid the torn tendon.
Wheeler said that while his elbow was “pretty uncomfortable at times” last year, he never considered ending his season early.
Well, it sucks to lose a talent like Wheeler for such a long stretch, I was expecting a breakthrough season from him this year. Instead he becomes the fifth Met to require Tommy John Surgery since 2013 joining Josh Edgin, Bobby Parnell, Jeremy Hefner, and Matt Harvey.
