3 biggest injury concerns for the Mets heading into the 2022 season

The New York Mets are coming off of a season where they expected to be competitive, but finished with a record of 77-85. The Mets were in first place for over 100 consecutive days but ended up falling apart in the second half. The Mets lineup underperformed drastically and the rotation fell apart in the second half. The biggest reason the Mets fell apart was due to injuries.

The Mets had a team capable of making the playoffs if healthy. Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball. He only made 15 starts, all of them in the first half. The Mets traded for Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. Both of them missed substantial time due to injury. Arguably their best hitter was Brandon Nimmo. He only played in 92 games.

Injuries are something that every team goes through but the Mets seem to be very unlucky with them. If they have any hopes of contending this season they will need players to stay healthy, but there are three very important players in particular I am very concerned about in regards to staying on the field.

3. Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer

This one might be a little surprising, but the splash of the offseason comes with injury concerns. In his 14 year Hall of Fame caliber career, Scherzer has been remarkably healthy. He had ten straight seasons of at least 30 starts from 2009-2018. He's been a workhorse for the longest time and has barely missed time due to injury.

With that being said, Scherzer is 37 years old and just made 30 regular-season starts, pitching 179.1 innings for the Nationals and Dodgers plus another 16.2 innings in the postseason. During the postseason Scherzer had a dead arm issue which made him unavailable for Game 6 of the NLCS against the Braves. It also caused him to leave Game 2 early in a situation where Scherzer would surely fight to stay in the game if he was feeling 100%.

Scherzer attributes that dead arm issue to his limited workload down the stretch and then immediately going on short rest in the postseason. While that makes me feel better, there's still some cause of concern.

Scherzer is 37 years old coming off a heavy workload with no major injury history. He will be asked to pitch another 200 innings or so this season, and with 2,536.2 career innings under his belt it's not out of the question that he might run out of gas at some point or have something worse happen.

I hope it doesn't happen and don't necessarily expect it to as he's been durable in his career but there is plenty to be concerned about for the newest Met.

1. Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom

The player with the biggest injury concerns for the 2022 season is without a doubt Jacob deGrom. The Mets ace was on pace to potentially have the best season a pitcher has ever had. He went 7-2 with a 1.08 ERA in 15 first half starts. He struck out 146 batters in 92 innings pitched. He allowed just 3.9 H/9, 1.1 BB/9, and struck out an absurd 14.3/9. Even while missing half of a season deGrom was an all-star and finished ninth in the National League Cy Young balloting.

In the past, deGrom was a durable pitcher. The only year he missed substantial time was in 2016 when he had an elbow injury that shut him down after 24 starts. Other than that, deGrom was a guy the Mets could rely upon to give them 30+ starts and close to 200 innings a year.

This season saw deGrom deal with a bunch of different issues. He had issues with his side that stemmed from a swing, he had a shoulder issue, an elbow issue, and then the forearm tightness that shut him down for the season.

A lot of the injuries were minor and caused by swinging the bat which is not something he will have to do this season and beyond. However, there is still reason for concern. deGrom consistently hits 100 mph or harder with his fastball. He throws 93 mph sliders easily. He averaged 99.2 mph with his fastball and 91.6 mph with his slider this season. His velocity has risen every year in his career and eventually that'll cause some wear and tear in his arm.

deGrom is the most important player on this Mets team and if he misses serious time, the team will have trouble making the playoffs. It's not surprising that the Mets rotation fell apart after they lost deGrom's consistent six or seven quality innings every outing.

The Mets go as far as Jacob deGrom takes them so if he stays healthy, I expect the Mets to be in postseason contention. If not, they will not make the playoffs.