LOS ANGELES -- Somewhat remarkably in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, it was Zack Wheeler who ranked among the sturdiest Mets starters over the season's first three months. That changed Tuesday when Wheeler landed on the 10-day disabled list with right biceps tendinitis.
The Mets expect Wheeler to miss just one outing, next week in Miami. To replace him on the active roster, the team recalled Wednesday's starter, Tyler Pill, from Triple-A Las Vegas, also summoning reliver Erik Goeddel. Infielder Matt Reynolds was sent back to Las Vegas.
"It's not terribly serious," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said of Wheeler's ailment. "But at the same time, we want him to be 100 percent."
This is not a new injury for Wheeler, who estimates he first began feeling biceps discomfort more than a week ago. At the time, the Mets sent Wheeler for testing in New York, but they did not consider the diagnosis serious enough to sideline him. Instead, Wheeler started Monday in Los Angeles, allowing seven runs to increase his ERA to 36.82 over his last two outings.
"I've been feeling it for a while now, but it kind of got a little worse so I just spoke up," Wheeler said. "It's just sore. It's sustained soreness. It might just be from coming back from two years without throwing, I don't know. All I can do is just take my time off and try to get better physically, and sort of just reset while I am trying to clear this thing up."
Wheeler is 3-5 with a 5.29 ERA this season, though his ERA stood at 3.45 as recently as June 12. Because Wheeler was on a soft innings limit anyway after going two full seasons without pitching, the DL stint will delay his shutdown.
"I think it'll help him," manager Terry Collins said. "He's made such huge strides and maybe made them fast. Certainly, we told him to focus on a couple days of just resting it a little bit, and then going through the rehab as vigilantly as he can to get back."
"I knew something like this might pop up, being away for two years," Wheeler said.
Wheeler's next start could go either to Pill or Rafael Montero, who has pitched well recently in a mop-up role for the Mets. In the interim, Wheeler will rest, take anti-inflammatory medication and spend significant time in the weight room, where he hopes to build his body back up to where it was when he left Spring Training.
Wheeler joins Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Seth Lugo and Tommy Milone as Mets starters to spend time on the DL this season.
"It happens, man," Wheeler said. "We're all hard throwers and you're not meant to pitch. We're not meant to throw how we do. Whether you work out a ton and try to prevent that or not work out any and try to prevent it, nobody knows how to prevent injuries. … Sometimes, you just can't help guys getting hurt."