The Mets will play the remainder of the 2025 season without their biggest bullpen acquisition of the winter, as veteran lefty A.J. Minter is scheduled to undergo season-ending surgery next Monday to repair a torn left lat muscle that ripped entirely off the bone.
Minter has experienced a string of bad luck dating back to last summer, as he suffered a torn labrum in his left hip in August that shut him down and required a cautious ramp-up period this spring. While he made 13 appearances for the Mets in April, he threw in back-to-back games only twice. His last outing came against the Nationals on April 26.
Now, the 31-year-old southpaw is facing yet another unconventional spring training regimen in 2026. His rehab process is expected to last 10-12 months, and only time will tell how long it takes for him to completely heal and pitch at a high level for the big league club again.
“It’s super frustrating, because I was starting to feel so good. I wish I knew what caused it,” Minter explained before Friday’s game against the Cubs. “If I had to guess, I was feeling so good that I gained so much more range of motion in my hips. It was allowing me to get a little more extension on the mound. Maybe it put more stress on my arm, I don’t know.
“My velocity was increasing at a pretty rapid rate, that maybe had something to do with it. There’s so many scenarios. I wish it wouldn’t have happened. The frustrating thing is, I was feeling so good and excited to help this team… But now my thought process is to come back, get my body in the best shape possible, and help the team next year.”
Minter signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Mets in January and wasted no time living up to his value. In his first month with the team, he registered a sharp 1.64 ERA with 14 strikeouts across 11 innings. He also posted one of the game’s top strikeout rates (34.8 percent).
While the two-year contract does include an opt-out clause after this season, it’s safe to say that the Mets don’t need to think about Minter possibly exercising it anymore.
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