JUPITER, Fla. — The Mets will prepare to play the first half of the season without Jose Quintana.
The left-hander is expected to be shut down from throwing for at least three months, according to sources, after he was diagnosed last week with a stress fracture on the fifth rib on his left side.
Under that timetable, Quintana would begin throwing again in mid-June at the earliest to ramp up for a return to the Mets’ rotation around the All-Star break.
Quintana, 34, arrived in the offseason on a two-year contract worth $26 million.
He was slated to pitch for Colombia in the World Baseball Classic, but never got that far — he pitched once in the Grapefruit League and was sidelined after throwing in a minor-league exhibition game on March 5.
Tylor Megill and David Peterson are the two candidates to replace Quintana in the rotation.
Though Peterson is left-handed — and the rotation is all right-handed without Quintana — team officials appear most intrigued by the idea of giving the spot to Megill, who pitched to a 1.93 ERA in five starts to begin last season before he was derailed by injuries.