Four-time All-Star New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom believes poor MRI positioning may have aggravated a recent arm injury, MLB.com reported this week.
During a mid-season game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cy Young Award winner felt some “unusual” soreness in his right forearm. A week later following the All-Star break, the discomfort continued leading to the first of several imaging exams.
MRI revealed a mild strain, the site reported, but the pain spread from deGrom’s forearm to his elbow in the days that followed. He believes how providers positioned him in the machine—on his stomach with elbow raised above his head for more than 60 minutes—made things worse.
“I honestly think that’s what aggravated it,” the pitcher said.
Two weeks after the exam, follow-up MRI in New York unearthed inflammation around deGrom’s UCL. Team leadership labeled the injury as a partial ligament tear. But once the inflammation subsided, orthopedists confirmed his ligament was completely intact, the report noted. His fourth MRI in less than two months came back clean in late August, but with the Mets falling out of contention he was eventually shut down for the year.
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Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.