CLEVELAND -- The outlook for Jacob deGrom's newborn baby has improved, Mets manager Terry Collins said Sunday morning, in a piece of "tremendous news" for deGrom and his family. The couple hopes to take baby Jaxon home from the hospital as soon as Monday.
"The baby is doing better," Collins said. "So that was a good sign. I just told Jake he needs to get some rest and mix in a meal."
Collins spoke to deGrom on Saturday night and called him exhausted, "mentally more than physically." Nonetheless, deGrom drove approximately two hours from his home in DeLand, Fla. on Sunday to throw a 40-pitch bullpen session at the team's Spring Training complex in Port St. Lucie. He came out of that with no issues, and he is now scheduled to return to Port St. Lucie for a simulated game on Tuesday.
The Mets placed deGrom on the bereavement/family emergency list one day earlier so that he and wife Stacey could tend to complications from their newborn's birth. Baby Jaxon was born last Monday.
DeGrom is also nursing a sore right lat muscle, which Collins believes is no longer a problem. Though deGrom will skip Tuesday's start in Philadelphia, the Mets hope he can come off the family emergency list in time to make his following rotation turn April 25.