Mets place Carlos Carrasco on injured list with pinky fracture, call up Sam Coonrod

Ahead of their series opener against the Nationals tonight, the Mets placed right-handed pitcher Carlos Carrasco on the injured list with a fracture in his right pinky finger. To replace him on the roster, the team has called up fellow right-handed pitcher Sam Coonrod.

Carrasco suffered the injury when a 50-pound dumbbell fell on it on Sunday, and the recovery timeline for it means his season is effectively over. Having joined the Mets alongside Francisco Lindor before the 2021 season, Carrasco dealt with injuries and put up an unsightly 6.04 ERA in just 53.2 innings in his first year with the team. In 2022, however, he rebounded pretty nicely, posting a 3.97 ERA in 152.0 innings of work. That performance prompted the team to pick up his $14 million option for the 2023 season.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for Carrasco this year. In 20 starts, he threw just 90 innings with a 6.80 ERA and a 5.86 FIP. An easy pitcher to root for following his successful battle with cancer a few years ago, the 36-year-old appears to be at the end of his time as an effective major league pitcher. The Mets will presumably look elsewhere to fill one of their several open spots in the rotation going into the 2024 season.

As for Coonrod, the 30-year-old reliever has thrown just 5.1 innings at the major league level this year, and he has a 1.69 ERA and a 3.64 FIP in that very small sample.