Mike Pelfrey Injury: Mets Wait For Second Opinion

Mike Pelfrey has been a durable starter throughout his seven years in Major League Baseball, with his recent trip to the disabled list being the first time he’s been inactive during the year in his professional career. Matt Kaufman did a great job at running down the reasons why Pelfrey may not throw another pitch as a New York Met, but the organization has now sent the righty’s MRI results to that dreaded man for a second opinion, Dr. James Andrews.

Depending on the size of the tear that they discovered in Big Pelf’s ulnar collateral ligament, surgery and missing the rest of the season will be in order for the former first round pick. If the tear ends up being small, there is a chance that rehab could be the course of action, allowing him to pitch with the injury through the season. Even if that’s the case, Pelfrey would have to be out for a month’s time, barring no setbacks in his rehab.

At this point, I’m mentally preparing to lose Mike Pelfrey for the rest of the season. It’s a shame because he was pitching so well,

improving with each start. By seeing the progress that he made from each of his appearances, it seemed as if the sky was the limit, with the potential of him being the biggest surprise from this year’s team. However, there is a good chance that his uneven career will continue with this bad break.

It’s interesting that the front office would even consider him pitching through the injury; I did find it quite odd that even though the tear was present during his start on Saturday against the Giants, he was still able to pitch through it, and feeling better as he loosened up throughout each inning on the mound. That leads me to ask the question, could he actually pitch through this? If the tear was big enough where it required surgery, I doubt he would have been able to pitch, let alone experience his best start of the season. On the other hand, knowing now what is going on in his elbow, that could play with his head, leading to a negative effect to his performance.

If it were up to me, I would shut him down for the season either way; whether it’s a large or small tear, it’s still a tear in his pitching elbow. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize the rest of his career by seeing if he can play through the injury this season. It’s frustrating to see him go down when he was just hitting his stride, but as they say, sometimes life throws you curve balls, and sometimes they fall right off the table.

If Dr. Andrews’ concludes that Big Pelf doesn’t need surgery and can come back this year, would you like to see him give it a shot, or would you rather see him shut it down for the year?

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