Kelvim Escobar may open the season on the DL - MLB

Kelvim Escobar headshot.jpg Or at least that’s what it sounds like. Here’s manager Jerry Manuel, as quoted by Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News:

“I don’t see it right now,” Manuel said about the righthander’s Opening Day availability. “Hopefully I’m wrong.”

Of course, Craig has been on this story ever since it was first reported that Escobar was suffering from shoulder weakness. The Mets have tried to temper expectations for Escobar, even hinting that he wasn’t expected to be ready for the start of the season in the first place. Well then why did they guarantee $1.5 million to such an unknown quantity? And why wasn’t this conveyed more openly in the first place?

Provided the Mets fail to sign Kiko Calero (an injury concern in his own right own), the Mets are going to have to rely heavily on Japanese right-hander Ryota Igarashi or someone else (Fernando Nieve? Bobby Parnell? Sean Green?) to step up to the eighth-inning role. As of now, it’s a shaky bridge to Francisco Rodriguez.

CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”