PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- In a 17-minute interview with reporters on Friday morning at the Mets spring training complex, starting pitcher Zack Wheeler spoke publicly for the first time since being diagnosed with serious arm trouble that will cause him to miss the 2015 season."When [owner] Jeff Wilpon came and got me, I sort of knew," Wheeler said Friday. "I said, 'Oh man, it feels like I'm getting taken to the principal's office'. I sort of had a feeling it wasn't good then."Next Tuesday or Wednesday, Wheeler will have Tommy John surgery, performed by Dr. David Altchek in New York. 
Wheeler, 24, who, started 32 games for the Mets last season (11-11, 3.54 ERA), said when he came into spring training this season that "everything felt great," but as the spring continued, his recoveries after throwing weren't what he expected."I could probably go out there and pitch tomorrow, but couldn't do the recovery," Wheeler said.After speaking with doctors last week he was told his right elbow had a torn UCL, and it'll be 12-18 months until he's back on the mound pitching for the Mets.Wheeler was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his arm, and has taken issue with what's been reported about his arm trouble."[Dr. Altchek] told me what all he saw, and it was nothing y'all reported on," Wheeler said. "Just to let you know. So, stop making up stuff. Stop being doctors. So you can go ahead and write that, if you want...Everybody thinks they're doctors at this point in time, and specialists, but I just want to get the facts first before you start reporting."Wheeler said there was a calcium deposit/buildup in his elbow on the bone that caused tenon pain that he pitched through last season. He had two MRIs this offseason, and said even his second MRI, in January, "didn't show a tear," Wheeler said. "I had three elbow specialists look at it. All of them said: no tear, nothing's wrong with it." (That January MRI revealed a partially torn tendon attached to the bone deposit. There was no knowledge, Wheeler said, of a UCL tear until earlier this week.)Wheeler said Friday that he pitched most of the 2014 season with pain in his elbow, but that he had had pain in that spot since going back to when he was drafted (6th pick overall in 2009), and didn't know of anything seriously wrong. Past MRIs, he said, did not reveal anything, and that doctors said that the tendon pain was from incidents earlier in his career.As Wheeler said: "It didn't happen last year, it didn't happen probably the year before, it happened when I was younger."He was told by team doctors last year that it was simply tendonitis, and that he doesn't disagree at all with how the Mets handled his innings last year and wouldn't have done anything differently."I talked with [Dr. James] Andrews yesterday, and he said he would have done the exact same thing, shooting it up with PRP (platelet-rich plasma) this offseason," Wheeler said. "If I would have had surgery on that, I would have been out all this year anyway, so might as well try and pitch with it."He said he doesn't think the tendon stuff affected his recent torn ligament.Wheeler said it just happens when a pitcher throws hard, saying, "Every guy who throws hard is probably going to have [Tommy John surgery]...Guys who throw hard, who throw long, lengthy, your body's not meant to move in that kind of motion."I don't think it really resulted in the torn ligament, either, to be honest with you," he said. "But you know, I'm not a specialist, so I don't know that."As for the surgery next week, Wheeler said it's to fix both the tendon and ligament issues."They are going to go in and basically clean up everything," he said. "So I'm going to have a new elbow. They're going to fix the ligament, fix the tendon, clean up that calcium deposit, clean up all the scarring or dead stuff, whatever you want to call it inside. Basically I'll have a new elbow when I come out."Subsequent rehab, he said, will address both tendon and ligament.Wheeler said he and the rest of the team was surprised by the injury, doctors included. He said he wouldn't have changed anything about this spring including his mentality or mechanics or how much he threw. He said it wasn't on one specific pitch, but overall, the arm just wasn't recovering post-workouts. "It just didn't get better with rest," he reiterated.Wheeler said he didn't consider getting surgery immediately after the 2014 season, because at that point, nothing felt serious enough to warrant it. He said the recovery for addressing the tendon would have affected this season anyway, and figured if he could pitch through it, why not? Again, he had had pain in that spot of his elbow much of his career.Wheeler said an Opening Day return in 2016 is not realistic, that it will be summer 2016 before he exacts to be back on the mound. Perhaps june.He said last year after a start against the Cubs (at home in August) is when the arm began to get progressively worse, but said he never was considering missing a start even though the team was out of playoff contention, despite what was reported."Whether you're down 50 games or up 50 games, you want to go out there and do the best you can," Wheeler said.Mets ace Matt Harvey missed all of the 2014 season with the same injury, but he underwent surgery immediately following the 2013 season, so had nearly 18 months to recover without missing more than a season. It was, in a sense, good timing.Along with Harvey, Wheeler is among the dozens of Mets players who've gone down with Tommy John surgery. Since 2005, Wheeler is the 25h Met to be diagnosed with the injury. He said it gives him confidence to know they've bounced back and continued their careers."[When] they told me on the phone, I came out here and everybody was sort of staring at me," Wheeler said about the scene in the clubhouse after he was diagnosed. "And I was like, 'Torn UCL'. And they all just sort of came up to me. I cried a little bit. They're all really supportive. Bunch of really good guys in here."Dillon Gee or Rafael Montero will likely take Wheeler's spot in the rotation.Ryan Hatch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Wheeler, 24, who, started 32 games for the Mets last season (11-11, 3.54 ERA), said when he came into spring training this season that "everything felt great," but as the spring continued, his recoveries after throwing weren't what he expected."I could probably go out there and pitch tomorrow, but couldn't do the recovery," Wheeler said.After speaking with doctors last week he was told his right elbow had a torn UCL, and it'll be 12-18 months until he's back on the mound pitching for the Mets.Wheeler was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his arm, and has taken issue with what's been reported about his arm trouble."[Dr. Altchek] told me what all he saw, and it was nothing y'all reported on," Wheeler said. "Just to let you know. So, stop making up stuff. Stop being doctors. So you can go ahead and write that, if you want...Everybody thinks they're doctors at this point in time, and specialists, but I just want to get the facts first before you start reporting."Wheeler said there was a calcium deposit/buildup in his elbow on the bone that caused tenon pain that he pitched through last season. He had two MRIs this offseason, and said even his second MRI, in January, "didn't show a tear," Wheeler said. "I had three elbow specialists look at it. All of them said: no tear, nothing's wrong with it." (That January MRI revealed a partially torn tendon attached to the bone deposit. There was no knowledge, Wheeler said, of a UCL tear until earlier this week.)Wheeler said Friday that he pitched most of the 2014 season with pain in his elbow, but that he had had pain in that spot since going back to when he was drafted (6th pick overall in 2009), and didn't know of anything seriously wrong. Past MRIs, he said, did not reveal anything, and that doctors said that the tendon pain was from incidents earlier in his career.As Wheeler said: "It didn't happen last year, it didn't happen probably the year before, it happened when I was younger."He was told by team doctors last year that it was simply tendonitis, and that he doesn't disagree at all with how the Mets handled his innings last year and wouldn't have done anything differently."I talked with [Dr. James] Andrews yesterday, and he said he would have done the exact same thing, shooting it up with PRP (platelet-rich plasma) this offseason," Wheeler said. "If I would have had surgery on that, I would have been out all this year anyway, so might as well try and pitch with it."He said he doesn't think the tendon stuff affected his recent torn ligament.Wheeler said it just happens when a pitcher throws hard, saying, "Every guy who throws hard is probably going to have [Tommy John surgery]...Guys who throw hard, who throw long, lengthy, your body's not meant to move in that kind of motion."I don't think it really resulted in the torn ligament, either, to be honest with you," he said. "But you know, I'm not a specialist, so I don't know that."As for the surgery next week, Wheeler said it's to fix both the tendon and ligament issues."They are going to go in and basically clean up everything," he said. "So I'm going to have a new elbow. They're going to fix the ligament, fix the tendon, clean up that calcium deposit, clean up all the scarring or dead stuff, whatever you want to call it inside. Basically I'll have a new elbow when I come out."Subsequent rehab, he said, will address both tendon and ligament.Wheeler said he and the rest of the team was surprised by the injury, doctors included. He said he wouldn't have changed anything about this spring including his mentality or mechanics or how much he threw. He said it wasn't on one specific pitch, but overall, the arm just wasn't recovering post-workouts. "It just didn't get better with rest," he reiterated.Wheeler said he didn't consider getting surgery immediately after the 2014 season, because at that point, nothing felt serious enough to warrant it. He said the recovery for addressing the tendon would have affected this season anyway, and figured if he could pitch through it, why not? Again, he had had pain in that spot of his elbow much of his career.Wheeler said an Opening Day return in 2016 is not realistic, that it will be summer 2016 before he exacts to be back on the mound. Perhaps june.He said last year after a start against the Cubs (at home in August) is when the arm began to get progressively worse, but said he never was considering missing a start even though the team was out of playoff contention, despite what was reported."Whether you're down 50 games or up 50 games, you want to go out there and do the best you can," Wheeler said.Mets ace Matt Harvey missed all of the 2014 season with the same injury, but he underwent surgery immediately following the 2013 season, so had nearly 18 months to recover without missing more than a season. It was, in a sense, good timing.Along with Harvey, Wheeler is among the dozens of Mets players who've gone down with Tommy John surgery. Since 2005, Wheeler is the 25h Met to be diagnosed with the injury. He said it gives him confidence to know they've bounced back and continued their careers."[When] they told me on the phone, I came out here and everybody was sort of staring at me," Wheeler said about the scene in the clubhouse after he was diagnosed. "And I was like, 'Torn UCL'. And they all just sort of came up to me. I cried a little bit. They're all really supportive. Bunch of really good guys in here."Dillon Gee or Rafael Montero will likely take Wheeler's spot in the rotation.Ryan Hatch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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