NEW YORK – The rebuilt Mets tournament was a huge success on Saturday, when the team announced that Seth Lugo will undergo surgery to remove a loose body from his right elbow. The Mets intend to close Lugo off the pitch for six weeks, which will take him out of consideration for the Opening Day roster.
In a telephone interview, Lugo said he did not feel anything abnormal in his arm until last week, when his elbow began to swell and would not decrease. A few days later, Lugo called someone from the Mets training staff, who scheduled an MRI. That test, which was done on Friday, revealed a bony spur that had broken his right elbow.
Lugo will be operated on Tuesday, but the right-hander, who has been throwing with a UCL partially torn at the elbow for at least the last four seasons, considered his fate to be much better than the worst of cases.
“I have been optimistic ever since [Friday]”Lugo said.” Last week I was sitting there thinking, ‘If I broke [a ligament], my career could have ended, so that’s devastating. ”But I feel great now that it’s fair [the bone spur]. … The worst case scenario was: I never throw again, so I’m pretty happy. “
However, it is a hard blow for the Mets, as Lugo has been their best scorer for most of the last three seasons, with an ERA of 2.68 with 207 attacks in 181 1/3 innings of 2018- 19. Last summer, the Mets tried to stretch Lugo as the starting pitcher on the fly, with mixed results; allowed two runs during his first 11 2/3 innings, before ending the season with an ERA of 9.82 in four outings.
After the season, Lugo started throwing ahead of normal in October due to how strong they felt after the 60-match schedule was reduced. It was not until February that he felt any discomfort, which derived entirely from the bony spur, not from his UCL.
“It simply came to our notice then [the diagnosis]”Said Lugo, who opted to rehabilitate his UCL instead of undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017.” It was good news for me, minus some time. … This is the first thing that has appeared since then: I don’t mean the UCL. I don’t want to raise it. With MRI [on Friday], it looked great. The doctor was really impressed with how it ended.
Bone spur is a more immediate concern. A six-week closure will take Lugo to the last week of March, just days before opening day. Although Lugo declined to comment on its chronology, he remained optimistic about his overall prognosis. If it is able to start pitching according to schedule, Lugo would probably need a month or more to work on the form of the game, which makes May a realistic scenario at best for their return.
“I’ll just do the surgery and get out of there,” Lugo said.
Meanwhile, the Mets will have to find someone else to play Lugo’s unique role at the back of their bullpen. He had become a veritable “firefighter” for the Mets in recent seasons, often throwing himself into the places with the most leverage from the middle to ninth innings. In this way, Lugo was a candidate to continue taking savings opportunities to Edwin Díaz, while also remaining active between middle and final entries.
The Mets have added two pitchers, Trevor May and Aaron Loup, to the league’s big offers this winter, as well as a swinger, Sam McWilliams, who could conceive a part of Lugo’s role. Díaz, May and Loup are locks for the Opening Day bullring, as are Jeurys Familia and Dellin Betances, as long as the Mets do not quote either of these two contracts as a pay dump. Miguel Castro and Drew Smith also appear to play prominent roles, but Lugo’s injury increases the possibility that the Mets will continue to seek help outside the organization. The team has been linked with free agents Trevor Rosenthal and Justin Wilson, among others, in recent days.
During the first part of this offseason, Mets officials debated whether Lugo would be a better fit in his rotation or bullpen, a debate that ended essentially when they added several pieces to their initial mix. Now, the Mets simply hope that Lugo can contribute significantly during the final two-thirds of 2021.
“It’s a professional group,” Lugo said. “With last year’s boys, I have no doubt that they will be able to hold the games. I’m still looking forward to meeting the new guys we signed and hopefully when he comes back we’ll be in a good position in the standings. Better now than in August, right? ”