According to Justin Toscano of The Record, Mets left-hander Justin Wilson is currently in Chicago with the big-league team, and will be throwing a bullpen “in the next couple days.”
Manager Mickey Callaway described the reliever’s diagnosis to reporters as similar to “golf elbow or tennis elbow,” with his MRI showing no structural damage despite the occasional flare-ups.
Wilson had been shut down with tightness just ten days into his rehab stint following his second appointment to the injured list. The lefty’s first trip back from elbow soreness came without any such assignment, and the big-league results across the season certainly lend explanation to his struggles in 2019 – the first year in a two-year, $10MM contract he signed with the Mets in January.
He currently owns a 4.82 ERA and 5.95 FIP in 10 appearances, averaging 3.9 walks per nine innings as well as a career-high 1.9 homers per nine. As a point of reference, his second-worst mark was just 0.9 homers as a Detroit Tiger in 2016.
Toscano also reports that fellow lefty Luis Avilan is expected to begin his own rehab assignment with the team’s High-A affiliate in St. Lucie.
Avilan, who has hung out on the injured list with elbow soreness (and without any medical updates, for that matter) since May 4, owns a 9.28 ERA in 11 appearances thus far, albeit in a much less familiar role. Despite being signed and breaking camp as a lefty specialist to supplement Wilson, Avilan has faced 38 right-handed batters and just 16 lefties, with the former hitting .429/.474/.686 against him.
What’s more, Avilan has worked almost exclusively in chunks of full innings, something he has not done much of in his seven-year career. His ratio of 11 games to 10.2 innings is a career-high going back to 2012, when he tossed 36 in 31 games as a rookie with the Atlanta Braves.
