Mets insider brutally slams Rangers manager over planned Jacob DeGrom IL stint

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy admitted on Wednesday that he might have to get creative to keep Jacob deGrom healthy. The pitcher has suffered tons of injuries before and only just returned from Tommy John surgery late last year.

The Rangers don't want him to go down again, so, according to Bochy, they are willing to skip starts or even stick him on the Injured List to preserve his body over a long season.

On Wednesday, Bochy said on "Foul Territory":

"If we have to skip a start or put him on the IL to keep him fresh, we'll do that."

One New York Mets insider took particular exception to this idea because teams aren't allowed to manipulate roster space like that. If a player goes on the injured list, they have to be hurt.

Tyler Wardy said:

"I’m sorry, what? 'Or put him on the IL to keep him fresh.' So Billy Eppler gets suspended a YEAR for roster manipulation while Bruce Bochy can causally air this out? Complete and utter nonsense."

Bochy can skip deGrom's starts at will, since there's no baseball rule against it. He can't, however, put him on the IL just to skip a start or two and open up a roster space that would be used by another player.

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Jacob deGrom opens up on reinventing himself

Jacob deGrom has been maligned by injuries lately. The former Cy Young winner hasn't been on the field much, and when he is, he's a different pitcher than he used to be.

Jacob deGrom has reinvented himself (Getty)

He knows he can't throw like he used to without getting hurt. He admitted this via ESPN in spring training:

"I have to look at it like, hey, I can pitch at that velocity [from 2018]. It is less stress on your body. You get out there and you're throwing pitches at 100 miles an hour for however many pitches it is -- it's a lot of stress. It's something that I'm going to look into -- using it when I need it, backing off and just trusting that I can locate the ball."

Many older pitchers have to adopt different tactics once the velocity they relied on starts to go, and injuries have pushed deGrom toward that as well.