Justin Verlander of the New York Mets was able to play soft toss on Friday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports.
Verlander was already placed on the 15-day IL just before Opening Day on Thursday. The injury is not expected to be long-term. It is to his teres major (armpit muscle), and the 2022 AL Cy Young winner himself stated that if this were the postseason, he likely would be pitching through the injury.
New York hopes to get Verlander back on the rotation in mid to late April. Tylor Megill was called up from Triple-A to take his rotation spot and will start Saturday.
This was always the risk with signing Verlander. Yes, he’s great, but at 40 years of age, how many starts are you expecting from him this season? The 28 he made last season would seem out of range now.
Max Scherzer is also in the same boat. In some ways, the Mets would be lucky to get 50 starts between the pair of aces. Then again, that number doesn’t really matter as long as both are healthy and ready to go for the postseason.
On Saturday, the Mets will have Megill starting versus Edward Cabrera of the Miami Marlins. New York is +146 (-1.5) on the run line and -112 on the moneyline, with an over/under of eight, over (-115), and under (-105). You can find the lines and props for this game and all others on the FanDuel Sportsbook.
