Mets planning to shut down Jose Quintana for three months

JUPITER, Fla. — The Mets are prepared 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 an initial diagnosis last week of a stress fracture on the fifth rib on his left side.

Doctors have indicated to the pitcher that the stress fracture wasn’t the result of blunt force and are still trying to determine the cause.

Under a three-month 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.

After the Mets’ 9-3 exhibition victory over the Marlins on Monday, general manager Billy Eppler called The Post’s report “premature.” The GM said he is still consulting with doctors and hopeful he can provide details on Wednesday.

“I was on the phone today with more of the doctors and with [Quintana] and I was with Jose on the call,” Eppler said. “I don’t want to drip this out. I want to make sure we have everything buttoned up and have Jose’s input and we go from there.”

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 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.

Megill was the Mets’ Opening Day starter last season after Jacob deGrom began on the injured list and Max Scherzer needed extra rest following a minor injury.

Megill or Peterson would join Justin Verlander, Scherzer, Kodai Senga and Carlos Carrasco in the rotation.

“Having both Petey and Tylor available at our disposal is a huge luxury for us,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said. “It’s one of the reasons we retained Cookie [Carrasco] because those guys are so available from a depth perspective and now unfortunately we have to tap into that a little bit, but that’s why we planned the way we planned in the offseason.”

Scherzer agreed to pitch in a B game on Monday, allowing Megill to get stretched out in a Grapefruit League game.

Megill pitched four scoreless innings against the Marlins in which he allowed three hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

Over his first 8 ¹/₃ innings this spring, he has pitched to a 1.08 ERA. A noticeably leaner McGill said he lost 15-20 pounds in the offseason to prepare for the increased physical demands of the pitch clock.

He now sees an opening.

“There is an opportunity there for real,” Megill said. “But me and Peterson, all we can do is pitch and be ready.”

Peterson is scheduled to pitch Tuesday in a Grapefruit League game against the Nationals.

The left-hander has pitched four hitless innings with three walks in his two appearances this spring.

Megill’s four-seam fastball hovered in the 92-93 mph range.

Last year he averaged 95.7 mph with that pitch, but Megill is taking a cue from Scherzer and conserving his bullets.

“It’s good that [Megill] came out here and had a good outing,” Scherzer said. “It seems like we need to get him sped up and that was one of the main reasons I went on the back field is he needs to get some reps here in the A game. But you watch how he pitches … he kind of empties the tank early in the game and runs out of gas at the end, and he’s not able to get to that 100 pitch count and be strong at 100.

“That’s kind of my conversation with him. You want to be strong at 100. That’s when you win and lose ballgames: call it from pitch 85 to pitch 100. That is when the ballgame usually is decided so that is when you need to be your best.”