Max Scherzer to IL; Minimum Stay Expected

Max Scherzer has been placed on the 15-day injured list ahead of Wednesday’s doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates, manager Buck Showalter announced.

The 37-year-old right hander left his start on Saturday after five innings due to what he described as “fatigue” in his left side. That’s the same left side in which he strained his oblique earlier in the season and missed six weeks. He said after the game that he pulled himself out as a precautionary move, knowing that if he pushed himself more and re-injured himself, he wouldn’t have enough time to ramp back up for the playoffs.

Showalter says he expects Scherzer to miss the minimum amount of time. His IL stint is backdated to September 4. He shouldn’t miss more than two starts. He said they want Scherzer to be “completely healed” after imaging showed “irritation” in his left side.

Scherzer himself said he expects to be out “days, not weeks.”

As for Starling Marte, who left Tuesday’s game after being hit on the hand, Showalter says “so far, so good.” The team doesn’t believe anything is broken in Marte’s right hand, but the team is waiting on more imaging to make sure. Though (and this is editor speculation) he may need an injured list stint, he seems to have avoided the worst.

With all of this movement, the Mets are still granted a 29th man for the day given they have to play a doubleheader. One candidate will be Alex Claudio, who has resided in Syracuse the whole season. He’s tossed 44 innings in 30 relief appearances, and the lefty has a 4.30 ERA in those spots. Yoan López also joined the team for the doubleheader. After today, one of Claudio or López will return to the minors, and the other will presumably stay with the team in place of Scherzer.

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