NEW YORK -- For a brief while, the Mets had zero left-handers in their bullpen.
Three days after placing A.J. Minter on the injured list with a lat strain that could cost him the rest of the season, the Mets sidelined Danny Young on Wednesday with a left elbow sprain. The move was retroactive to April 27, meaning Young will be eligible to return as soon as May 12. But there’s a possibility Young will need season-ending Tommy John surgery, according to manager Carlos Mendoza.
For now, Young stressed that the process is still “early.” He plans to receive medical opinions from other doctors before determining next steps.
"You never really want to assume the worst,” Young said. “It’s in the back of your mind, but it’s real early. Obviously, we’re going to try everything we can, and then we’ll see what happens.”
At the time of Young’s IL move, the Mets had just one lefty reliever on their roster in Brandon Waddell, whose scoreless bulk relief performance Wednesday was essentially a spot start. Waddell returned to the Minors on Thursday, as did right-hander Chris Devenski, whom the team had recalled earlier Wednesday to replace Young on the roster. The Mets then dipped further into their Minor League stockpile for help, selecting the contracts of left-hander Génesis Cabrera and righty Ty Adcock from Triple-A Syracuse before Thursday’s game.
Cabrera, 28, served as a lefty reliever for the Cardinals and Blue Jays dating from 2019-24 before the Mets scooped him up on a Minor League deal last winter. He experienced bouts of wildness in the Minors and has been prone to that throughout his career, but the Mets still chose him over fellow veteran Anthony Gose, who held a better ERA (2.38) at Syracuse. Cabrera features a far longer track record of success in the Majors, and one scout who saw him recently at Triple-A referred to him as “filthy.”
Longer-term, the Mets recently finalized a one-year deal with Brooks Raley, their primary lefty reliever during the 2023 campaign. But Raley is recovering from Tommy John surgery, and the Mets transferred him to the 60-day injured list to clear 40-man roster space for Devenski. That means Raley won’t be an option until late June at the earliest.
Much will depend upon the severity of Young’s injury. The 30-year-old was a revelation last season for the Mets, who signed him as a Minor League free agent then watched him blossom into a useful specialist. He had been off to a shakier start this year but held a secure job in part because of Minter’s injury.
In recent weeks, Young began having trouble recovering between outings, which prompted him to go for an MRI on Wednesday morning. That test revealed a ligament sprain.
"I usually bounce back fine,” Young said. “It’s something that’s kind of abnormal for me. We’re just going to send it around, kind of see what we get from other doctors.”
Minter, who entered the season as the Mets’ primary left-handed bullpen option, is similarly weighing whether to undergo season-ending surgery on his strained left lat muscle. Even if Minter opts for a more conservative treatment method, he said he probably wouldn’t return until September. (The Mets on Thursday transferred him to the 60-day IL.) It’s possible, then, that the Mets will be without their top two lefty relievers for the balance of the season.
"That’s about as bad of timing as you can get, huh?” Young said. “It’s unfortunate.”