Inside The Mets

Mets hurler provides optimistic update on injury recovery

New York Mets pitcher Paul Blackburn appears to be progressing well from his recent injury.
Grant Young|
Aug 23, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Paul Blackburn (58) pitches during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
Aug 23, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Paul Blackburn (58) pitches during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

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The New York Mets didn't start the 2025 regular season with their imagined starting rotation, which is a byproduct of the injuries they dealt with during spring training.

Starting pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas were both sidelined relatively early in the spring due to oblique and lat injuries, respectively. And that wasn't the end of the rotation's injury woes, as news broke on March 26 that right-handed hurler Paul Blackburn would begin the season on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right knee.

While this didn't sound good, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns provided some reassurance by saying that the team expects Blackburn's injury to be relatively brief and that he should be available to pitch at some point in April.

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Blackburn spoke with the media ahead of New York's March 28 game against the Houston Astros and provided a positive update on his recovery.

"I feel great," Blackburn said, per an X post from SNY. "I feel great. But yeah, I guess it's just one of those things that when you put the gel in, you have to wait seven days to just being able to rotate on it and everything like that.

"So just kind of waiting for those seven days to be up, and go," he added.

A March 28 article from SNY adds Blackburn saying, “It could have been structural damage, it could have been a lot of other stuff instead of, we just have to drain this and kind of wait a week and then we’re able to just kind of pick up where we left off."

Blackburn missed the back half of the 2024 season due to a spinal procedure. Both he and Mets fans are hoping he can return to the mound in short order.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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