Mets’ Matz to continue rehab assignment on Wednesday

By Danny Abriano
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New York Mets left-handed pitcher Steven Matz will continue his rehab assignment when he starts for Double-A Binghamton on Wednesday.

It’s expected that Matz will be limited to roughly 60 pitches.

Matz, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 5 due to a strained lat muscle in his left side, made his second rehab start last week for High-A St. Lucie, throwing 41 pitches in 2.2 innings.

Mets assistant GM John Ricco said this past weekend that if all goes well on Wednesday, Matz will either be activated for his next start or make one more rehab start prior to activation.

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.

Thoughts:

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The Mets will likely return to a six-man rotation when Matz is activated, Sandy Alderson recently said, and that’s something that makes sense given the innings limits of 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, and they began taking precautions against that on Sunday when Harvey’s start was skipped in order to shave innings.

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.

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