Jacob deGrom left Mets camp for a couple of days at the start of Spring Training for the birth of his second child, Anniston. He returned to Port St. Lucie, not even a week later, with complaints of stiffness in his lower back. This threw his entire spring schedule off, making his chances of starting Opening Day very slim.
Since then, it has been announced that Noah Syndergaard will take the mound on Opening Day at Citi Field with deGrom pitching game 2 of the regular season.
DeGrom took things easy for a couple of weeks, starting with a 20 pitch bullpen, then a 40 pitch bullpen, followed by a simulated game, and finally making his Spring Training debut on March 11th.