MLB

Mets’ deGrom may move to bullpen when Gee returns

MIAMI — Jacob deGrom won’t call this a June swoon, but also realizes his last three starts could have been much better for the Mets.

“I would just say I’ve been falling behind recently,” said deGrom, scheduled to face the Marlins on Saturday.

After bursting on the scene with four straight solid starts in May, replacing injured Dillon Gee in the rotation, the rookie right-hander has struggled. In three June starts, he is 0-2 with a 7.80 ERA, after getting pounded for six runs on 12 hits over 4 ¹/₃ innings in his last start, Monday against the Cardinals.

With Gee on the comeback trail from a strained lat — the right-hander is expected to make a minor league rehab start on Tuesday — manager Terry Collins will pay attention to his rotation more closely, because he could soon have to send a starter to the bullpen.

The candidates would be deGrom and Daisuke Matsuzaka, who took the loss in Friday’s 3-2 defeat to the Marlins.

“When Dillon comes back I think there will be discussions about a lot of guys,” Collins said. “Dillon is going to go back in the rotation and we don’t know who it is that we’re going to put back in the bullpen. There will be discussions, and when that time comes, we’ll see which names are brought up.

“Certainly [deGrom’s] stuff could play in the bullpen. The issue is his durability. Can he get up every day? Can he get up three days a week? That becomes the question — any time you’re looking at a young pitcher who has not pitched out of the bullpen, are they going to be able to get up and get their arm ready? And if they get up, how long is it going to take to get their arm ready, because sometimes they’ve got to speed it up.

“One of the things we’re going to have to do is watch him early and make sure we give him enough time to get loose.”


Juan Lagares played seven innings in center field and went 0-for-4 in a rookie league game Friday. It was Lagares’ first rehab game after sitting the last 2 ½ weeks with a strained rib cage muscle.