ATLANTA — New York Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco is expected to miss up to a month after straining his left oblique, the team announced Tuesday in another setback for its rotation.
The 35-year-old Carrasco, 13-5 with a 3.92 ERA in a resurgent season for the NL East leaders, was hurt Monday night in a game at Atlanta.
The Mets said Carrasco had an MRI on Tuesday that showed a low-grade strain on the left side. The club said a typical timeline for this sort of injury was three to four weeks.
Manager Buck Showalter said the diagnosis was actually good news. He feared the injury would be much worse.
“Grade 1, that’s good news,” Showalter said. “I thought it could be something a little deeper.”
Carrasco gave up three runs in two innings in a 13-1 loss to the Braves, who trailed New York by 4 1/2 games in the division before Tuesday’s game.
His outing was interrupted by a 55-minute rain delay in the second inning. Carrasco came back after the break and got the last out. He winced on his final pitch and was pulled.
“We’re just going to wait to see how I feel tomorrow and go from there,” Carrasco said after the game. “This is my first time that I’ve felt something like this. It just happened on the last pitch of the game.”
Carrasco had been 5-0 with a 1.69 ERA in his previous seven starts.
Acquired with star shortstop Francisco Lindor in a trade with Cleveland before the 2021 season, Carrasco was injured and went 1-5 in his first year with the Mets.
With Carrasco going on the 10-day injured list, the Mets called up right-handers Stephen Nogosek and R.J. Alvarez from Triple A Syracuse. Also, pitcher Adonis Medina was optioned to Syracuse.
“It gives us a couple of fresh arms,” Showalter said. “Not fresh, but fresher. Nobody is fresh at this time of year.”
In other moves, the Mets designated outfielder Nick Plummer for assignment to make room for Alvarez on the 40-man roster and signed outfielder Travis Jankowski to a minor league contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.