Jacob deGrom says delivery to blame for side tightness, not too worried about injury

NEW YORK — Jacob deGrom has a working theory for the right-side tightness that sent him to the injured list, and it boils down to issues with his delivery.

DeGrom was placed on the IL on Tuesday, retroactive to Monday, even though his MRI came back clean. Mets manager Luis Rojas said there’s “nothing” in his right side; no inflammation and no sprain. Certainly, the extremely competitive ace could pitch through the tightness, but deGrom and the Mets don’t want him to change his mechanics or move his arm differently to compensate for the discomfort.

“It boils down to, I think, my delivery,” deGrom said, during a press conference that abruptly took place at first pitch Tuesday. “Having looked at it the past couple days, my direction to the plate, noticing I was underneath the baseball and looking at a couple positions that I’m in before release.

“It’s going to take this time through, cleaning that up, and getting this out of there where it allows me to get back where I need to be.”

DeGrom is optimistic he will miss just one start while on the IL. The right-hander cannot return before May 21, when the Mets open a three-game series in Miami. Rojas has not announced who will take deGrom’s place in the rotation, but the Mets do not need to fill his spot until their series next week against the Braves thanks to their two off-days this week.

The two-time Cy Young award winner has an MLB-best 0.68 ERA and 65 strikeouts through six starts this season, including one shutout.

“Level of concern is definitely not very high,” deGrom said. “It’s getting back to feeling normal and making a couple minor adjustments on my mechanics.”

In the meantime, deGrom will play catch every day to keep his arm moving while the medical staff works on alleviating the tightness in his side through massages and various techniques. Sometime during the 10 days on the IL, deGrom will progress to throwing a bullpen session.

“I never want to miss starts,” deGrom said. “It’s frustrating at times that I’m not able to get out there. I want to be out there every fifth day. I think just having skipped a start and then going out there and feeling it tighten up there in the sixth, I was just like, we gotta be smart here. Don’t do something where it turns into now I’m missing a couple months.”

DeGrom’s right side aggravations started last week, when he was scratched from his May 4 start in St. Louis due to inflammation that showed up in his initial MRI. After taking a few days off from throwing, he felt better, threw a bullpen session, and received the green light to start this past Sunday against the Diamondbacks. He pitched five innings, threw two warmup pitches before the sixth, then alerted the trainer of his tightness before Rojas took him out of the game.

The skipper said it was smart of deGrom to flag the team. If he continued pitching through the tightness, there is always a possibility the discomfort could’ve worsened. Following his MRI, which revealed no structural damage, the ace said his level of concern decreased. Now he’s focused on correcting his mechanics so he can put the issues to bed.

“I think this time, having missed the start before and then it tightening up in that game, didn’t feel right,” deGrom said. “I could tell I was underneath the baseball, how I was throwing it. I felt off. I was yanking a lot, sailing a lot, and that normally tells me that I’m off.

“I’ve talked about being able to make adjustments in-game and just wasn’t able to, and I felt like that tightening up was keeping me from making the adjustment that I needed to ... this is minor, let’s keep it that way, get rid of it and go from there.”