After two opinions and a couple of days to think it over, Josh Edgin made a decision on his ailing left elbow.
On Sunday, reporters from St. Lucie said Edgin has decided to undergo Tommy John Surgery on the stretched ligaments in his left elbow, and will miss the entire 2015 season.
Sandy Alderson said he expects Edgin to return by May, 2016, according to Mike Vorkunov of the Star Ledger.
According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, the Mets left the decision up to Edgin, who seemed to prefer he go through a short rehabilitation and treatment program before deciding on surgery.
“If we pursue the conservative approach and we resolve it one way or the other by the end of the month, there’s no real impact on next season,” Alderson said last week, according to Rubin. “If it were to go beyond that, then you start to impact next season.”
Edgin indicated last week part of the thought process included the impact on his career and family, so I can’t blame him for taking the chance on this season and knocking this out now. This is a big blow and it’s a shame because he really came into his own last season and was fantastic after he was called up in May. The Mets were counting on him to anchor that side of the bullpen this year, especially since they didn’t acquire a major league complement for him this winter. He’s a good kid with a great personality and is popular in the clubhouse, so I’m sure his presence will be missed. Hopefully there are no further problems, he comes back strong and can be a meaningful part of the team’s bullpen next season.
Edgin went 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA in 47 relief appearances for the Mets in 2014, during which lefties hit just .184 against.
As for the lefty relief roles to be determined in the bullpen, Alderson will continue to look outside the organization for help while hoping one or more of his internal candidates emerge.
“We’ll continue to look at all options,” Alderson said, according to Vorkunov. “We know what we have internally at this point. We’ll hope that those options improve over the next couple of weeks, become more attractive and continue to look externally as well.”
Here are the stat lines of the candidates vying for the left-handed relief roles in the Mets bullpen so far this spring:
To read about the left-handed relief options for the Mets, read Rich MacLeod’s analysis from last week here.
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