NEW YORK — On Wednesday, Jacob deGrom made his fourth minor league rehab start of the year.
Pitching to highly touted catching prospect Francisco Alvarez at Triple-A Syracuse, deGrom pitched four innings, matching the length of his previous outing on July 14. In between, he threw a simulated game on July 21 after dealing with some shoulder soreness and reported “feeling good” after those 60 pitches.
The start on Wednesday lasted 67 pitches with three walks and six strikeouts. The most noteworthy news item of the day was that deGrom allowed two home runs. Brewer Hicklen and Drew Waters, both prospects in the Royals’ systems currently with their Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, supplied the long balls. Hicklen has six MLB games to his name while Waters is still waiting to make his debut.
“It’s good to see him almost get to 70 pitches,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “Trevor [May] had a good outing too. We’ll get our arms around it here in the next day or so. Our hope is that his next outing is with us.”
May pitched the seventh inning for Syracuse and allowed one run, which came home on a wild pitch. May also had a strikeout.
Royals’ legend Salvador Perez was also making a rehab appearance in this game. He struck out twice against deGrom. The two dingers were the only hits deGrom allowed, finishing his day with four earned runs. Showalter reiterated that the next time deGrom takes the mound, he should be pitching for the Mets instead of Binghamton or Syracuse.
“He’s fine, he said his arm felt good,” Showalter reported, brushing off the home runs as a non-issue. “The plan for us, if everything progresses well, is to have him pitch for us next time. That could change by what we hear tomorrow or the next day.”
Showalter then got meta about the whole process of giving deGrom updates.
“I know y’all are OK with not having to talk about it anymore or being responsible for reporting every little thing. I’m okay with that too. More than anybody, I think Jake will like that, just the thought of being able to come after a game and just talk about his outing, that’s pretty attractive right now.”
