Mets IL Scherzer, shuffle bullpen

Ahead of their Wednesday doubleheader with the Pirates, the Mets have made several roster moves. Most importantly, Max Scherzer will be heading back to the IL with fatigue in the same side that led him to miss several weeks earlier in the season. Alex Claudio has been activated to fill Scherzer’s spot on the roster with Yoan Lopez added as the 29th man. Finally, Adonis Medina has been DFA’d.

If you’re looking for a silver lining here, this appears to be a precautionary IL stint for Scherzer rather than a reactive one. This morning, he told reporters this was a “days, not weeks” situation, so he’ll hopefully rest up for a couple weeks before being activated after the minimum IL time. Otherwise, these moves are mostly marginal, though they do serve to highlight the current state of the Mets’ bullpen. Spoiler alert it’s pretty bad.

At least the Mets did receive some good news, as the official word on Starling Marte is “so far so good.” Nothing appears to be broken in Marte’s right hand, which was hit by a pitch on Tuesday. The Mets are still waiting for one more reading of his imaging, but it seems the Mets may have dodge a potentially crippling bullet at a time when they’re already dealing with several injuries and a severely slumping offense.