PHOENIX — Zack Wheeler’s season is finished before it got started, after an MRI exam on Wednesday revealed the Mets pitcher has a mild flexor strain in his right elbow that will keep him inactive for at least the next two weeks.
The righty was examined by renown orthopedist James Andrews, after concern had risen about persistent discomfort in the elbow. Wheeler underwent Tommy John surgery last year in spring training and had made his first minor league rehab start on Aug. 6, throwing 17 pitches for Single-A St. Lucie.
“Obviously the good news is the ligament was intact — there are no problems there,” assistant general manager John Ricco said before the Mets’ 13-5 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night at Chase Field.
Though the Mets aren’t officially ruling out Wheeler for 2016, the fact he has been told to wait until September to resume throwing and would have to build up arm strength through rehab starts — with the minor-league season ending early in the month — makes a return this year hard to fathom.
“We’re very disappointed,” manager Terry Collins said. “I feel bad for Zack. I know he certainly wanted to pitch and was looking forward to pitch, but nobody knows how he feels any better than he does. But I just hope with the rest and recuperation that he can certainly come back in the future and be effective.”
Wheeler’s latest setback was his third this season. In April, he was shut down from throwing after undergoing a procedure to remove a stitch in his elbow that had failed to dissolve. He was examined again in June and backed up in his rehab because of discomfort caused by the nerve endings in the elbow.
The Mets originally hoped Wheeler would join the rotation around July 1, allowing the Fab Five of young power arms — Wheeler, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz — to pitch together in the same rotation for the first time. But Harvey was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome in June and underwent subsequent surgery that ended his season as Wheeler was still trying to get into minor league rehab games.
“We started out the year very confident that at some time in July [Wheeler] would be back,” Collins said. “Then as the summer proceeded where he never felt comfortable, especially the last month where every time it seemed he got on the mound there was discomfort, we all of a sudden realized this may not come and may not be what we thought was going to happen.”
Wheeler, 26, will next month reach the two-year anniversary of the last game he pitched in the major leagues. And the Mets may have reached the point they are no longer counting on Wheeler for 2017.
“I think you’ve got to certainly prepare yourself for the fact he might be one of those guys who for some reason just doesn’t bounce back like you had hoped,” Collins said. “I know [general manager] Sandy [Alderson] will certainly prepare for that, but it’s very discouraging to hear today that he’s got to be shut down again.”
Wheeler arrived to the Mets at the trade deadline in 2011 in a swap that sent Carlos Beltran to the Giants. Wheeler’s major league debut came in 2013, when he went 7-5 with a 3.42 ERA in 17 starts. The following year he went 11-11 with a 3.54 ERA in 32 starts.