Sandy Alderson Reveals Jacob deGrom's Elbow Injury As UCL Sprain/Partial Tear

According to Mets president and acting general manager Sandy Alderson, Jacob deGrom's right elbow inflammation turned out to be a sprain/partial tear of the UCL.

The plot continues to thicken.

With all the mystery surrounding Jacob deGrom's two month absence due to what the Mets were initially calling right elbow inflammation, as it turns out, it was a little more serious than that.

According to team president and acting general manager Sandy Alderson, who spoke to reporters prior to the Mets-Marlins series opener in Miami on Tuesday, deGrom had a sprained/partially torn UCL in his right elbow.

But as Alderson went onto say, deGrom's ligament is fully intact and the sprain seems to have healed on its own with rest. deGrom has not pitched since July 7, and was shutdown from throwing from July 30 to August 25.

“A sprain is the lowest grade partial tear,” Alderson told reporters. “At this point, the sprain has resolved itself. The elbow, at this point, is perfectly intact based on the MRI and the critical evaluations of our doctors. That’s just the technical term that the doctors have used.”

With the deGrom currently on the mend, Alderson says the goal is to ramp him back up to find out where the pain is coming from.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to ramp him up until it breaks, that’s not my point,” he said. “My point is we need to begin to see whether this is more of a chronic issue that relates to mechanics in some way. But the more we know going into next season, the better off we’ll be.”

deGrom recently began playing catch from 100-feet, but as far as holding out hope that he can return to the Mets this season, don't hold your breath. 

“I think that’s still very much up in the air," said Alderson of deGrom's potential return this year.

As Inside the Mets reported a few weeks ago, the Mets are not rushing deGrom back whether they are in a playoff race or not. If he can't make it back to the mound during the regular season, which doesn't seem likely at this point with 24 games left to play, the team is hoping he can toss a simulated game in October, per source.