Mets' Dedniel Núñez to undergo Tommy John surgery: 'This is something that he dealt with last year'

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Jul 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dedniel Núñez was a great story last season, but the story of his 2025 season is over before it even really started. The New York Mets‘ right-handed reliever will undergo surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during the All-Star break, leaving him sidelined for at least the next year, if not more.

It will be the second Tommy John procedure for the 29-year-old, which brings some doubt to his short-lived big league career. He had surgery as a minor leaguer in 2021.

“It’s unfortunate,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday at Kauffman Stadium. “He gave it a try. This is something that he dealt with last year, missed the rest of the season, we had the whole offseason and he worked extremely hard, put himself in a position where he came in healthy in spring training, and then went to Triple-A and we started to see that version of Núñez.”

Núñez threw only 9 2/3 innings in the big leagues this season, struggling to find the strike zone in many of them. Last August, he was diagnosed with a pronator strain in his right forearm and was shut down for the season only a few days after returning with forearm tightness.

It was right around the time he had become an important part of the bullpen, and during an important part of the season with the Mets in the thick of a wild-card race. Núñez had been in the Mets system since he was 21, but it took six seasons for him to reach the big leagues. A hard-thrower, Nuñez added more movement to his pitches and learned to command them later in his minor league career. After pitching to a 1.29 ERA in 14 innings with Triple-A Syracuse last year, the Mets gave him his first Major League opportunity.

He ran with it, posting a 2.31 ERA in 25 games (35 innings), using him as a multi-inning reliever in medium- and high-leverage innings. Núñez was better in high-leverage innings and save situations than in any other, holding opponents to a .185 batting average, striking out 10 hitters and walking only one over 28 plate appearances.

The Mets assigned him to Triple-A out of spring training to protect his elbow and let him work on increasing the volume of pitches. However, he wasn’t the same pitcher when he returned to the big leagues for two stints this season, posting a 4.66 ERA. After struggling to recover from outings, he was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL.

While regenerative treatments sometimes work to heal a UCL with only a small tear, surgery ultimately ended up becoming the best option. Núñez is the third Mets reliever to suffer a season-ending injury this year, and the second to require Tommy John. Left-hander Danny Young had the procedure earlier in the season, and left-hander A.J. Minter was lost to a lat tear in April.

Pitching change

The Kansas City Royals scratched right-hander Michael Lorenzen from his Saturday afternoon start after he came down with an illness overnight. Left-hander Angel Zerpa started in his place, becoming the third pitcher in Royals history to start the day after pitching. Zerpa threw 1 1/3 innings in the Mets’ 7-3 series-opening win Friday night.

The Royals, who are fighting for an AL wild-card spot, informed the Mets on Saturday morning they would be throwing a bullpen game, with manager Matt Quatraro calling Mendoza.

“Very professional by Q to reach out to me this morning, give me the heads-up and explain the situation,” Mendoza said. “They’ve got a bullpen game. But the good thing about our lineup is that we have balance. You’ve got righties if you [face] lefties, you’ve got switch hitters. Every time you’re facing a game like this, it’s not easy from the other side when you’ve got that type of balance, and then we’ve got some pinch hitters that can potentially come in at any time.

“We got versatility that allows me to be a little bit more aggressive.”

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