Mets place Joey Lucchesi on 10-day IL, activate Albert Almora

The Mets have placed lefty Joey Lucchesi on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing elbow. Albert Almora will take Lucchesi’s spot on the active roster, as the outfielder has been activated off the 10-day IL.

With the Mets facing a number of injuries to their pitching staff this season, Lucchesi has been a valuable arm, able to work both in the rotation and out of the bullpen. Lucchesi has a 4.46 ERA/3.72 SIERA over 38 1/3 innings (starting eight of his 11 games), and an above-average 26.1% strikeout rate and seven percent walk rate. The southpaw added to this resume with a strong outing Friday night, tossing 5 1/3 shutout innings against the Nationals.

The Mets have doubleheaders scheduled for Sunday, Monday and on Friday, so the rotation was already facing a crunch even before Lucchesi hit the IL (the club does have an off-day on Thursday to act as  something of a reset). Robert Gsellman is scheduled to start the second game Saturday night, and a solid outing could put him in line to act as Lucchesi’s replacement.

Almora has been on the IL since May 12 due to a shoulder contusion he suffered after a big collision with the outfield wall.  The 27-year-old will settle back into his backup outfield role, and look to essentially restart his season after hitting only .048/.091/.048 in his first 22 plate appearances.