Will Jacob deGrom ever stay consistently healthy?

 JUPITER, Fla.

This time, unlike many of the others, the MRI didn’t come back clean. And what that exam revealed Friday about Jacob deGrom goes beyond the Mets’ description of a stress reaction in his right scapula, or shoulder blade.

The injury itself is bad enough. The team announced he’ll be shut down for the next four weeks — hopefully enough time for the area to heal before putting deGrom back in the MRI tube to make sure. After that, figure it’s another three to four weeks for him to build back up to pitching shape.

Going by the best-case scenario, maybe the Mets get deGrom on the mound around June 1, and that’s if everything goes according to plan. But let’s be real: When does that ever happen — with the Mets or deGrom?

Any optimism left in the tank coming off last season was pretty much drained by Friday’s diagnosis. Now the needle feels as if it’s pinned on E, regardless of how this all turns out.

“He’s disappointed, we’re disappointed — everybody’s sharing in the disappointment right now,” general manager Billy Eppler said. “Nobody’s immune to that. But I think the good news is there’s nothing structurally wrong here with the rotator cuff or anything like that.

“We are dealing with a bone issue, and when you deal with bone, they calcify. The healing characteristics will take care of themselves. So I think that’s a positive we walk away with.”

Not so fast. Ideally, sure. DeGrom doesn’t need surgery for this. Put that in the plus column. As explained by the Cleveland Clinic website, a stress reaction “can be considered similar to a deep bone bruise, which arises from trauma or overuse.” It’s also related to high-energy, repetitive motion (sound familiar?) and if unchecked, potentially leads to a stress fracture.

Knowing that, deGrom was wise to speak up in this case. He alerted the Mets to his shoulder tightness toward the end of Thursday’s long-toss session, on the eve of his final Grapefruit League start, and the team sent him for tests. In retrospect, he probably saved himself further damage to the shoulder.

But if deGrom couldn’t stay healthy this spring, it’s now fair to ask if the two-time Cy Young Award winner ever will again on a consistent basis.

Dating to July 2020, deGrom has been diagnosed with 11 different ailments in 21 months, resulting in three stints on the injured list. Still, he should have had plenty of time to recover heading into camp, given that he didn’t pitch after July 7 last season and showed up looking stronger than he had in past years.

This was the perfect reset button for deGrom. During his opening news conference, he boldly declared that yes, he’ll opt out at the end of the season, forgoing the final two years of his $137.5 million contract to presumably cash in on what might be a third Cy Young Award. There was nothing unusual about his Grapefruit League starts, as he struck out 10 in five innings, routinely touching 99 mph but not at an alarming rate (in past springs, he’d excessively reach 101).

DeGrom, always hypercompetitive, looked to be on a mission this year, and it seemed from the jump that perhaps his health problems were behind him. When he said the universal DH would help him because last season’s injuries were caused, in part, by swinging the bat, it was easy to believe him.

But now that theory obviously has been debunked, replaced by a far more credible one: that deGrom, who will turn 34 in June, is just generating more stress than his body can handle. In other words, what makes him deGOAT also may be gradually destroying him, piece by piece.

He registered MLB’s highest average velocity for both his four-seam fastball (99.2 mph) and slider (91.6) last season, two pitches that can exact a demanding toll on the body’s kinetic chain, from the elbow to the shoulder, down the back and through the legs.

It’s all connected, and when one thing goes wrong, compensating for an injury can spawn others along that chain.

Even though deGrom appears to throw with relative ease, his smooth mechanics disguise a vicious amount of torque and physical blowback to his body. He’s hardly a stick figure, but at 6-4, 180 pounds, the whip-like delivery can yank on ligaments and tendons.

DeGrom had Tommy John surgery in 2010, the ulnar nerve in his elbow was repositioned in 2016 and then-acting GM Sandy Alderson said he suffered a low-grade UCL strain last season.

Now it’s damage to a major bone in his shoulder, a very critical part of the whole throwing structure. On Friday the Mets tried to put the focus on his eventual return — without daring to offer the roughest of estimates for that. They know better.

“Jake’s a resilient person,” Eppler said. “This is another situation where, at some time, we’ll have him healed and we’ll get him back on the hill.”

But for how long?

That’s the question.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.