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Mets Notes: Walker, Diaz, Lugo

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The Mets have activated Taijuan Walker from the injured list, optioning Yennsy Diaz to Triple-A to free up the roster spot, per Tim Healey of Newsday (via Twitter). Walker missed the minimum amount of time with tightness in his side. Walked has excelled in eight starts this season with a 2.05 ERA/2.84 FIP across 44 innings.

Diaz has thrown two scoreless innings in two appearances. He came to the Mets this winter from the Blue Jays as part of the Steven Matz trade. While Diaz was mostly a starter with the Blue Jays, the Mets have thus far used him exclusively out of the pen both in the Majors and in Triple-A.

The Mets also plan to get another arm back soon in Seth Lugo. The Mets plan to activate Lugo when he’s eligible to return on Monday, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (via Twitter). Lugo has been a huge piece of the Mets’ pitching staff over the past five seasons, but arm surgery has kept him from the mound so far this season. Over 167 games (38 starts) since 2016, Lugo has pitched to a 3.45 ERA/3.59 FIP in 383 1/3 innings, notching 25 wins, 32 holds and 12 saves.

Mets Shut Noah Syndergaard Down For Six Weeks

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Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard will be shut down from throwing for the next six weeks due to inflammation in his right elbow, manager Luis Rojas announced to reporters Thursday (Twitter link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com).

Syndergaard, who is working his way back from 2020 Tommy John surgery, exited his most recent minor league rehab start due to elbow discomfort. Tests did not reveal any damage to Syndergaard’s ulnar collateral ligament, but today’s announcement still marks a substantial setback. He’ll need to build back up once he resumes throwing in mid-July, meaning the earliest he’d be able to return to the big league rotation is likely some point in August.

The Syndergaard setback is the latest in a rather remarkable deluge of injuries the organization is attempting to weather. While the pitching staff hasn’t been hit as hard as the lineup, the looming promise of a Syndergaard return nevertheless stood as a potential boon for the club as it tries to patch the roster together while a whopping 17 players are on the injured list.

The Mets’ rotation has been excellent, anchored by yet another dominant performance from two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. Mets starters have pitched to a collective 2.94 ERA on the season, ranking fifth in baseball. They also have the game’s fifth-best strikeout percentage (28.1 percent) and the seventh-lowest walk percentage (7.1 percent).

That said, it’s been a top-heavy group. Each of deGrom, Taijuan Walker and Marcus Stroman has turned in a sub-3.00 ERA (sub-1.00, in deGrom’s case), but young David Peterson has worked to a 4.91 mark in 44 innings while the fifth spot has been a revolving door. Carlos Carrasco, like Syndergaard, has yet to pitch this season and is said to still be “weeks” away from his potential Mets debut, and another rotation option, Jordan Yamamoto, was placed on the 60-day injured list yesterday.

The setback, of course, is worrisome for Syndergaard on a personal level as well. He’s in his final season of club control and was already facing a best-case scenario of just under four months to showcase his health in advance of free agency. He could now be looking at closer to a six-week audition window — perhaps longer if the Mets reach the postseason.

Mickey Callaway Placed On Ineligible List Through At Least 2022

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Major League Baseball has placed Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway on its ineligible list through at least the 2022 season, commissioner Rob Manfred announced. The league made the decision after investigating Callaway for harassment allegations that were levied against him. The Angels have fired Callaway, per a team announcement. Maanfred issued the following statement on his ruling:

My office has completed its investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Mickey Callaway.  Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Callaway violated MLB’s policies, and that placement on the Ineligible List is warranted.  We want to thank the many people who cooperated with our Department of Investigations (DOI) in their work, which spanned Mr. Callaway’s positions with three different Clubs.  The Clubs that employed Mr. Callaway each fully cooperated with DOI, including providing emails and assisting with identifying key witnesses.  Harassment has no place within Major League Baseball, and we are committed to providing an appropriate work environment for all those involved in our game.

The allegations against Callaway first came to light in a report from Brittany Ghiroli and Katie Strang of The Athletic, who explained that five women in sports media accused him of lewd behavior. The Angels subsequently suspended Callaway, and Ghiroli, Strang and colleague Ken Rosenthal soon reported that even more women had come forward to make allegations against Callaway. In one case, Callaway was said to carry on an extramarital affair with a woman whose husband found out and made Cleveland president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff aware. The husband also reportedly contacted another of Callaway’s former employers, the Mets, to make a complaint, but nothing was done back then.

In response to the reports, Callaway admitted in March to multiple “infidelities” but maintained that some of the reporting was “inaccurate.” He also denied using his position to harass women, but MLB concluded otherwise during its lengthy investigation. Now, Callaway is facing a year-plus ban, and it seems hard to believe any MLB team will hire him when he’s eligible to return.

Mets Acquire Billy McKinney

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The Mets announced that they have acquired outfielder Billy McKinney from the Brewers for minor league left-hander Pedro Quintana. New York also transferred righty Jordan Yamamoto to the 60-day injured list.

McKinney will add some much-needed outfield depth to a Mets club dealing with a rash of injuries in that area (and just about everywhere else). Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr. are all on the injured list, and Johneshwy Fargas is about to join them on the shelf. As a result of its injuries, the team went with a starting alignment of Dominic Smith in left, Cameron Maybin in center and Brandon Drury in right during its win over the Rockies on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old McKinney, whom the Brewers designated for assignment on May 22, comes with a fair amount of major league experience at both corner outfield spots. The former first-round pick (No. 24 to the Athletics in 2013) has seen time with the Yankees, Blue Jays and Brewers since he debuted in 2018, and he has hit .226/.285/.422 with 21 home runs in 511 plate appearances. He picked up 100 PA with Milwaukee this year but batted just .207/.260/.359 with three homers. McKinney has no minor league options left, so the Mets won’t be able to send him down without possibly losing him.

Quintana, still just 17 years old, joined the Mets in the winter as a free agent from Venezuela. There’s otherwise little information on Quintana that’s available, but the Brewers think he’s worth taking a chance on in exchange for an outfielder whom they deemed expendable.

Yamamoto went to the 10-day IL on the 23rd with shoulder soreness, and his shift to the 60-day version means he won’t return until at least the end of July. Acquired from the Marlins in the offseason, Yamamoto has made two appearances this year and allowed six runs (five earned) over 6 2/3 innings.

NL Injury Notes: Ozuna, Mets, Jazz, Hoerner

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Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna dislocated two fingers on his left hand during the team’s win over the Red Sox on Tuesday, according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. The Braves aren’t sure whether they’ll have to place Ozuna on the injured list. Ozuna was one of the game’s premier hitters a season ago, leading the Braves to re-sign him to a four-year, $65MM guarantee in free agency, but he has been slow out of the gates in 2021. The 30-year-old has hit a disappointing .213/.288/.356 with seven home runs in 208 plate appearances.

  • The last thing the Mets need is more negative news on the injury front, but here it is: Third baseman J.D. Davis has returned to New York from his Triple-A rehab assignment “to receive treatment on his left hand from our health and performance team, as well as determine next steps,” according to the club (Twitter links via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Davis, who last played May 1, has inflammation and won’t resume his rehab for at least another few days. He’s one of several notable Mets hitters on the IL, with first baseman Pete Alonso, second baseman Jeff McNeil, and outfielders Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo and Kevin Pillar unavailable as well. They’re also missing outfielder Johneshwy Fargas, who suffered a left AC joint sprain Monday. He’s “week to week” and will go on the IL on Wednesday, per manager Luis Rojas.
  • Marlins second baseman Jazz Chisholm suffered a mild ankle sprain in their loss to the Phillies on Tuesday, manager Don Mattingly told Christina De Nicola of MLB.com and other reporters. “We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow,” Mattingly said of Chisholm, who spent time on the IL earlier this season with a strained left hamstring. When healthy, Chisholm has helped lead the Marlins’ offense this year with a .275/.336/.480 line, five home runs and eight stolen bases across 113 trips to the plate.
  • Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner strained his left hamstring during their victory over the Pirates on Tuesday, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to report. Whether that will lead to a trip to the IL remains to be seen, but Hoerner has already been there this season. He sat out earlier this month with a left forearm strain, but the 24-year-old has otherwise enjoyed a productive campaign. Although Hoerner hasn’t homered in any of his 84 PA, he has batted .338/.405/.432.

Noah Syndergaard Leaves Rehab Start With Elbow Soreness

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8:03pm: Syndergaard will have an MRI, but the Mets don’t seem overly concerned about his status, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

6:47pm: Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard was supposed to throw at least four innings in a Low-A rehab start on Tuesday, but he exited after tossing just one frame. The Mets have since announced that Syndergaard left “for precautionary reasons due to right elbow soreness” (via Tim Britton of The Athletic).

Syndergaard is working his way back from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in March 2020, making this news especially troubling. It’s also another unsettling development for an injury-riddled Mets team that has a slew of other important players on the IL, including two of Syndergaard’s fellow rotation members in Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker.

If this doesn’t prove to be another serious health problem for Syndergaard, he’ll serve as a key summer reinforcement for a New York team that currently has a tenuous hold on the National League East lead. The hard-throwing 28-year-old has enjoyed a terrific career with the Mets going back to 2015, having pitched to a 3.31 ERA with a 26.4 percent strikeout rate, a 5.6 percent walk rate and a 49.1 percent groundball rate across 716 innings. Unfortunately, Syndergaard hasn’t taken a major league mound since Sept. 29, 2019. On a personal level, Syndergaard is facing a pivotal season as a free agent-to-be, making it all the more important that he’ll recover quickly from this issue.

Brewers Claim Jake Hager

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The Brewers announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Jake Hager off waivers from the Mets, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. Hager has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville. Milwaukee had space on its 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary.

Hager, 28, made his big league debut with the Mets in 2021, going 1-for-8 in a brief five-game stint. This will be his second stint with the Brewers organization, having spent the 2018-19 seasons with Milwaukee’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates.

Hager has spent the bulk of his career at shortstop, although he’s begun to diversify his defensive repertoire in recent seasons. The Mets, due in no small part to the rash of injuries they’ve incurred at the big league level, got Hager some work in the outfield corners and even trotted him out to center for one game with their Triple-A affiliate. Hager has just 67 innings of outfield work in his professional career but has ample experience at all four infield positions.

Mets Exploring Trade Market As Injuries Mount

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With the Mets reeling due to a massive slate of injuries, they’re not waiting until the trade deadline to look for ways to help their roster. Acting general manager Zack Scott told reporters prior to last night’s game that he’s in active pursuit of reinforcements (links via Newsday’s Laura Albanese and The Athletic’s Tim Britton).

“I’m pretty much on the phone all day, every day,” Scott said prior to a game which saw the Mets incur yet another injury, when Johneshwy Fargas sustained a sprained AC joint in his shoulder upon crashing into the center field fence. “We’ve got to find the best solutions, always. … We’re trying to find the best internal options and the best external options and trying to get the best out of the guys that we have

The Mets have been hit with a near-unfathomable slate of outfield injuries, some of the soft-tissue variety that have been on the uptick in 2021 throughout the league but many freak injuries that are entirely unforeseeable. Fargas becomes the second Mets outfielder to injure himself colliding with the wall in center field, joining Albert Almora Jr. in that regard. Kevin Pillar was struck in the face by a fastball last week, leading to multiple nasal fractures that required surgery. Brandon Nimmo is currently being plagued by a nerve issue in his left hand that forced a recent minor league rehab assignment to be halted. Meanwhile, the Mets revealed last night that both Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil will likely be out until late June, as the hamstring strains that sent them both to the injured list have proven to be “significant.”

At this point, the Mets are a catcher injury shy of having legitimate MLB-caliber starting lineup on the IL. Pete Alonso, McNeil, Luis Guillorme, J.D. Davis, Pillar, Nimmo and Conforto represent a better foundation for a lineup than many rebuilding clubs around the league trot out on a nightly basis.

Unfortunately for the Mets, this is also happening at a time when most clubs aren’t yet ready to throw in the towel on their season. Save for a few clubs who entered the year knowing the 2021 season wouldn’t be a competitive one — Pirates, Tigers, Orioles, etc. — teams generally wait until further into the summer to determine their trade deadline direction.

Even those clear sellers may prefer to wait a bit longer, as the demand for the players they plan to market will likely increase along with the number of motivated buyers. Many of today’s front offices seemingly prefer to wait until the eleventh hour and choose not to start dealing until the deadline is just days or even hours away. The Nationals’ remarkable turnaround in 2019 likely only further dissuades clubs from becoming early sellers.

“It’s harder to assess, to address your needs in May or early June, than it is when everyone’s kind of in that (trade deadline) mode,” Scott said last night. At the same time, there’s urgency for the Mets to act now, to the extent possible. “[T]he risk of waiting given all our injuries is that we’re in a different spot and not where we want to be come the end of July,” Scott added.

The Mets, improbably, remain in first place in the National League East in spite of their litany of injuries and a -14 run differential. They can hardly be expected to maintain that standing with the skeleton crew they’re running out on a nightly basis, but Scott and team president Sandy Alderson face an uphill battle in terms of prying meaningful help away from another club at this point in the schedule.

Injury Notes: Buxton, Mets, A’s, Cards

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Twins center fielder Byron Buxton could be ready for a rehab assignment near the end of the week, manager Rocco Baldelli told Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and other reporters. Buxton has been out since May 7 with a hip strain, the latest of an unfortunate number of injuries he has dealt with since his career began in 2015. The 27-year-old was off to a jaw-dropping start this season with a .370/.408/.772 line, nine home runs and five stolen bases in 98 plate appearances before his IL placement, making him the brightest spot on a Minnesota team that has surprisingly gone from contender to calamity.

  • The Mets didn’t need another injury to an outfielder, but they got one Monday: Johneshwy Fargas departed their game against the Rockies with a left AC joint sprain, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to report. The team just promoted Fargas a week ago when it placed fellow outfielder Michael Conforto on the injured list (he’ll be out until late June with a hamstring strain), and Fargas has since been its go-to option in center. The 26-year-old has fared well with a .286/.286/.524 line in 22 plate appearances, but he may now be on his way to the IL. The Mets’ outfield is already without Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr.
  • Athletics left-hander Jesus Luzardo is going on a Triple-A rehab start Thursday and looks to be closing in on a return to the big league club, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The question is whether Luzardo, who fractured his left hand in a video game-related accident at the beginning of the month, will start or relieve when he returns. The promising 23-year-old got off to a rocky start this season with a 5.79 ERA in 28 innings prior to landing on the IL.
  • Cardinals southpaw reliever Andrew Miller will begin a rehab stint Tuesday, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat tweets. St. Louis will have a better idea of a return date later this week. The Cardinals have gone since April 29 without Miller, whom they sent to the IL with a right foot issue. The once-marvelous Miller, 36, got off to a tough start this year with 7 1/3 innings of 12-hit, seven-run pitching and eight strikeouts against four walks before going on the IL.

Latest On Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil

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The Mets placed outfielder Michael Conforto and second baseman Jeff McNeil on the injured list on May 17, but both players are going to miss much more time than the 10-day minimum. Mets acting general manager Zack Scott said Monday that Conforto and McNeil have “significant hamstring strains” that will shelve them until late June, per Laura Albanese of Newsday.

Conforto has largely been an offensive standout with the Mets since he debuted in 2015, but this news continues a difficult platform season for the 28-year-old. He’s off to a so-so start (by his standards) with a .230/.356/.336 line and a pair of home runs in 135 plate appearances. It’ll now be several more weeks before Conforto can try to rebound in advance of a potential trip to free agency.

The Mets’ outfield, meanwhile, is in a tattered state. Along with Conforto, they’re down Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr. – all of whom have been on the IL for at least a week. As a result, the team is forced to rely on a starting alignment of Cameron Maybin, Johneshwy Fargas and Khalil Lee in the grass. It’s obviously not ideal for New York, but the club is nonetheless up a game and a half in the National League East.

Like Conforto, McNeil hasn’t been at the top of his game this year, though he was enjoying a solid month prior to his IL placement. Overall, the 29-year-old has batted .242/.336/.374 with three home runs over 113 trips to the plate, and the versatile McNeil has been the Mets’ No. 1 choice at the keystone. Jose Peraza and Jonathan Villar have also racked up at least a handful of starts there, but the latter has mostly handed third base since another of New York’s top hitters – J.D. Davis – landed on the IL on May 2 with a sprained left hand.

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