Mets’ Seth Lugo ‘on track’ in rehab from elbow surgery

PORT ST. LUCIE – Seth Lugo said Thursday morning that his rehabilitation from right elbow surgery has gone smoothly so far, although the right-hander declined to place a timetable on his return to major-league action.

“I don’t know that answer. I’m just going one day at a time right now,” Lugo said at a Zoom news conference. “I’m just going to take it slow for now.”

Lugo, whom the Mets intend to switch back to the bullpen this year after he moved to the starting rotation last August, underwent a procedure on February 16 to remove bone spurs from his pitching elbow. The Mets announced at the time that Lugo wouldn’t throw for at least six weeks, ensuring that he’d miss the start of the regular season.

“Right now we’re on track, a little more than two weeks in,” Lugo said. “I’m working out on a shoulder program, riding a bike. Planning on throwing once we get there.”

In his first public comments since the surgery, Lugo said that his right elbow began swelling in early February, and he attempted to treat it with ice, which often has worked in the past. When that remedy didn’t work, the 31-year-old alerted the Mets.

“It caught me off guard. I was feeling fine,” Lugo said. “There wasn’t an incident or a throw. It came out of nowhere.” When he received the relatively good news about bone spurs, Lugo said, “It was a sigh of relief.”

When he underwent the MRI that revealed the bone spurs, Lugo added, the doctors examined his pitching arm’s UCL, which he partially tore in 2017. Said Lugo of the ligament: “It looked good minus the bone spurs. But they’re gone now.”