After nearly two months of a pitching carousel, the Mets are lastly positioned to close the journey down, or least sluggish it down. The Mets have a call they’ll must make quickly on right-hander Paul Blackburn, and right-hander Tylor Megill took an enormous step in his restoration Sunday morning, however the latter continues to be just a few weeks away from a return.
Blackburn made his ultimate rehab begin Saturday with Triple-A Syracuse, pitching into the seventh inning and permitting just one earned run. He walked just one and struck out six over 6 1/3 innings, needing solely 87 pitches. Nevertheless, there isn’t actually a spot for Blackburn in the intervening time within the rotation or within the bullpen. Proper-handed reliever Austin Warren was known as up Sunday and right-hander Rico Garcia was designated for project, so the Mets might use that spot for Blackburn within the bullpen, however that offers them little flexibility since Blackburn doesn’t have minor league choices.
Since they did not discover a commerce associate, they’ll have to determine a method to make use of Blackburn after he returns from his rehab project.
The Mets don’t seem to need to use Blackburn once more. The 31-year-old has been largely injured since he was traded from the Oakland A’s a 12 months in the past on the deadline. Whereas the spinal fluid leak in his mid-back was undoubtedly a freak harm, the knee harm and the shoulder impingement which have sidelined him this season have the Mets feeling sympathy for Blackburn, but in addition have them questioning the place he suits into their pitching plans the remainder of the season.
Regardless of having mentioned Saturday’s rehab begin was his final, the Mets nonetheless haven’t dedicated to activating him this week, saying he must throw a bullpen first. The membership sought commerce companions for Blackburn, however finally he remained with the Mets after Thursday’s commerce deadline.
When president of baseball operations David Stearns was requested about Blackburn shortly after the deadline, he mentioned they’d have to attend till after the following rehab outing.
“We’ll see how he gets through that, and we’ll go from there,” Stearns mentioned. “We’ll talk it over with Paul to see what makes the most sense after that.”
Supervisor Carlos Mendoza mentioned almost the identical factor Sunday morning, the day after his rehab outing.
“We’ll see him today,” Mendoza mentioned. “We’ve still got a couple of days before we decide what’s next for him. We’ve got to make sure that he threw the ball well again, so now it’s just how he’s feeling today, tomorrow, he’s got to throw a bullpen, and then we’ll go from there.”
Blackburn has been restricted to solely six outings this season, throwing 5 scoreless innings in a begin towards the Los Angeles Dodgers in June, earlier than two disastrous outings in reduction. Moved again to the rotation after Megill was injured, he misplaced his final three selections earlier than a shoulder impingement landed him on the IL once more.
Megill threw about 22 pitches in stay BP on Sunday at Citi Area. Two hitters from Excessive-A Brooklyn came to visit to face in towards the massive righty, who confronted hitters for the primary time since spraining his proper elbow. He’ll throw one other two-inning simulated bullpen Thursday.
Initially Printed: August 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM EDT
