Jacob deGrom has strep throat, start pushed back to Saturday

After this afternoon’s game, it was reported that Jacob deGrom has been suffering from strep throat, the latest Met to fall victim to illness this season. Seth Lugo, Justin Wilson, and Brandon Nimmo had all been feeling under the weather at various points over the past few weeks, although it’s not clear if those incidents are related. deGrom has been taking antibiotics and it’s unclear how long he’s been dealing with the illness. The Mets told reporters that in order to have more time to recover, deGrom will now start on Saturday in St. Louis and Jason Vargas will start on Friday.

deGrom was originally scheduled to pitch on Saturday, but the Mets had planned to push Vargas’s start back given his recent struggles. With the rotation now in its original order, deGrom will notably miss the series against the Phillies next week.

If deGrom is still too unwell to pitch on Saturday, Noah Syndergaard or Steven Matz will pitch in his stead. With tomorrow’s off day, it would be regular rest for Syndergaard. It would be short rest for Matz, but because he did not get out of the first inning in his most recent start, he only threw 31 pitches in the outing.

This is just the latest blow to an already struggling Mets rotation, whose collective 5.62 ERA is the second-worst in the National League.