The New York Mets announced on Sunday morning that both Steven Matz and Dellin Betances were heading to the 10-day injured list, depleting the team’s bullpen during a season in which first-year manager Luis Rojas has had to shuffle around his arms plenty.
Matz is dealing with shoulder discomfort and some inflammation around the area while Betances has right lat tightness.
In subsequent moves, the Mets recalled Franklyn Kilome and Drew Smith from their alternate site in Brooklyn.
“Both of those guys are going to see the doctors tomorrow and we’ll find out what the next step is with them,” Rojas said.
Matz’s IL stint was expected after his appearance out of the bullpen on Saturday against the Yankees. After a clean fifth inning, he did not return to the game after he was poised to throw at least two more frames.
“I was excited to get back out there, so this is definitely going to damper that,” Matz said. “It’s been difficult.”
After the game, Rojas said that Matz was dealing with left-shoulder discomfort for at least a week — adding more frustration to a season that had already seen him demoted from the starting rotation after allowing six runs on five hits in 4.1 innings on Aug. 15 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“It is a surprise because I was feeling so good coming in. Even when I was struggling with my results,” Matz said. “My arm was feeling really strong and healthy so I’m pretty bummed about it definitely.”
New York’s manager also revealed that Matz underwent an MRI last week for the affected shoulder.
“We sent him for an MRI and he got it, but what we saw there was shoulder inflammation, a little bursitis,” Rojas said. “Everything went good until yesterday when he threw that inning and then he came back to us and told us about something in his shoulder.”
As for Betances, the right-lat injury is a repeat issue from last year while with the Yankees, which is a knock he picked up while rehabbing from a shoulder impingement.
The reliever’s command was way off during his outing on Saturday against his former club, which surmounted into a walk-off wild pitch to give the Yankees a 2-1 win.
“As of right now, it’s not in my knowledge that it was an issue or we knew about it previously,” Rojas said. “I always saw him try to correct himself… I don’t know if this is the thing that was challenging him to get out there, his release point with his fastball. No correlation knowing that it was carrying over from last year.”
