Mets ace Jacob deGrom took an enormous step towards returning to the Mets before the season concludes in the next 17 games.
On Tuesday, deGrom threw his first bullpen session since his last start on July 7, tossing a total of 10 pitches off the mound, as MLB.com's Anthony DiComo reported.
According to DiComo, this was a light session for deGrom, who remains on track to return later this season. The next steps for deGrom will be to throw another light bullpen later in the week, before ramping things up by intensifying his sessions and throwing live batting practice. Once he does all of this, he will go out on a rehab assignment. But with little time left, he must avoid any setbacks, or else his season will be all but over.
After getting shut down for a month from July 30 to August 25 due to right elbow inflammation, which was later revealed to be a sprain/partial tear of the UCL, deGrom's ligament is fully intact and he is now racing against the clock to come back before the 2021 season ends in the next few weeks.
Syndergaard Update
As for Noah Syndergaard, he is scheduled to throw live batting practice on Wednesday, with one of the hitters he is set to face being Brandon Nimmo.
If all goes well, he could resume a rehab assignment this weekend, and potentially rejoin the Mets on their upcoming road trip in Boston and/or Milwaukee next week.
Alonso Clemente Award Nominee
First baseman Pete Alonso has been named the Mets' nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award. This honor recognizes players who portray the highest character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions on-and-off the field.
During the pandemic last year, Alonso launched his Homers for Heroes foundation, which he runs alongside his fiancée Haley. This foundation recognizes heroes within the community, helping kids, first responders and many more individuals.
"To be nominated for his award is such an honor," Alonso told reporters prior to the Mets-Cardinals game on Tuesday night.
"I’m really blessed because I went to the Roberto Clemente Museum and I was just absolutely blown away when we were in Pittsburgh," Alonso said. "I got to talk with their curator, Dwayne. He just such an unbelievable guy. He actually let me hold Roberto Clemente’s Silver Slugger and he told me a ton of different stories about Roberto and his philanthropic ways. He’s just an incredible individual."
Whether Alonso winds up winning the award or not doesn't matter to him. He is just happy to make a difference by giving back to the community.
"I’m just trying to do good in the community," he said. "There’s a lot of things that I want to be able to tackle and kinda improve upon in the community and I want to be able to keep continuing to be an ally to here in New York in every single borough and just want to continue to bring positivity and whatever positive change that needs to happen.”
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