Mets injury news: Matz to begin rehab assignment Saturday

New York Mets left-handed pitcher Steven Matz will begin a rehab assignment with High-A St. Lucie on Saturday, Sandy Alderson told reporters on Monday.
Matz, who hasn’t pitched since July 5 due to a strained lat muscle in his left side, is slated to throw roughly 25 pitches.
Before Matz was placed on the disabled list, doctors said that his lat issue was something that wouldn’t have prevented him from pitching had it occurred during the postseason, but the Mets chose to err on the side of caution.
In two starts after being promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas, Matz had posted a 1.32 ERA and 0.88 WHIP while striking out 14 in 13.2 innings pitched.
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The Mets will likely return to a six-man rotation when Matz is activated, Alderson said, and that’s something that makes sense given the innings limits that face both Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard.
Harvey, who missed all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, has already thrown 140 innings this season. The Mets have maintained since this past winter that Harvey will not be shut down if the team reaches the postseason.
Syndergaard has thrown 128.1 innings between Triple-A Las Vegas and the Mets so far this season. He threw 133 innings last season between Las Vegas and Double-A Binghamton, meaning he’ll likely be capped at around 170 innings this season.
In order for the Mets to get both Harvey and Syndergaard through the remainder of the season, they’ll have to rely on Matz in September as part of a six-man rotation and will likely have to use a spot-starter a few times between now and then in order to space out the rest of the starters.
As far as Matz’s innings limit, the fact that he’ll miss roughly two months will almost certainly mean that there will be no restrictions on him the rest of the way. Matz, who has thrown 104 innings so far this season, tossed roughly 145 innings last season, meaning he’ll be capped at around 180 innings in 2015 — a total he’s almost certainly not in danger of reaching.