José Martínez suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee yesterday, Mets manager Luis Rojas told reporters (including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). The first baseman/corner outfielder will undergo surgery this weekend. He is expected to be out around four months.
Martínez was injured when he collided with the first base umpire trying to field a ground ball in yesterday’s Spring Training game. It’s a tough blow, as he was looking to earn a bench role after signing a split contract with New York in January. Martínez will now spend a rather significant chunk of the season on the injured list and seemingly isn’t assured of an MLB roster spot even when he returns.
A very productive hitter early in his career with the Cardinals, Martínez has tailed off at the plate over the past two seasons. He put up a league average .269/.340/.410 line with St. Louis in 2019 and stumbled to a .182/.265/.295 mark over 98 plate appearances for the Rays and Cubs last year. Performing at the plate is especially important for Martínez, who has always rated as a below-average defender at both first base and in the outfield.
Sucks
Would be easy to blame the umpire if you haven’t seen Martinez play 1st base before.
Ump Stood There Like a DOOR STOP
BRING BACK THE 300 pound umps that not ONLY MOVED BETTER …
But Could ACTUALLY GET THE CALLS CORRECT!!!!
Honestly, I thought Martinez hurt himself prior to encountering the umpire. I could be wrong, but I though Jose had reached out to lean on him.
But I do agree, the umpire got caught flat footed, too. Not sure who the ump was, but it’s possible he’s less experienced?
It’s a shame for Martinez at this stage of his career, but his roster spot was anything but secure. At the same time, it kicks the door wide open for Pillar, Guillorme, Villar and especially Almora to all now head north with the big team barring injuries.
Looks like it’s down to just 1 or 2 pitching roster spots already and the younger players making an impression for later. Stay healthy, Mets!
Hey fool, the umpire was exactly where he was supposed to be to make the fair/foul call…..try understanding umpire mechanics before you open your mouth and sound uninformed.
I had to watch the play again. Even as a Mets fan no way to blame the umpire on that. Ump actually took steps back as HE was being hit.
Freak injury and looks like it would have happened if the umpire was up in the bleachers; shame but that’s the game.
The umpire was not to blame…..he was neither out of position nor “flat footed”…..10+ steps up with line…..he’s supposed to be exactly where he was and his first responsibility is to watch the ball pass the bag and signal fair/foul which he was in the process of doing when Martinez, who obviously was beginning to lose his balance and in the process of falling actually did…right into the umpire….and if you watch, the umpire is at least 10+ steps up the fair/foul line….again where he is supposed to be with nobody on.
Tee hee… You read an article about a guy who is just trying to earn a job and who seriously injured himself and made a funny. Tee hee he horribly hurt his knee. Message boards are fun!
Martinez is a dangerous hitter. Not graceful in the field, hence his long journey to MLB. DH will be his position should he return from this injury.
Martinez WAS a dangerous hitter. His last good year with the bat was three years ago and he’s about to turn 33. I wouldn’t be penciling him in as my future DH. Gotta judge a player by what he is now, not what he used to be.
@cosmos nelson cruze says hi he’s in his 40’s and still mashing and also ortiz was dh’ing till his 40’s. my question is if jose can find an al team and mashes why can’t he dh until his 40’s. like or not the dh will be in both leagues before to long and your gonna have a bunch of nl teams scrambling for a dh
Nelson Cruz has nothing to do with it. It is extremely rare for guys to have the success that he’s had at his age (and thus, means nothing when judging Martinez because we predict what is likely to occur, not what is unlikely yet possible). Also, Martinez’ profile is nothing like that if Cruz. Again, Martinez hasn’t been good in3 years and is aged 33. It would be an extreme outlier were he to have anything resembling the career of Cruz in his mid to late thirties.
poor guy, hope he can produce when he’s healthy
Was he on a minor league deal, meaning I wonder if he’ll be paid anything now for the season. Not sure what happens when a player is injured in camp.
it was a MLB deal
It was a split contract. Not fully guaranteed
well i mean he’s holding a MLB roster spot currently
He was fighting with almora for a spot. Not holding. Actually almora also had the upper hand.
He’s on the 40, and typically if you get hurt for extended time when on the 40 you go to the 60 day IL. Since he hadn’t been optioned before the injury it would be a union case if they tried to shunt him down to the minors now.
I would think workman’s compensation… or something like that.
If he’s not compensated in some way, the union should get it for him!
Really sucks for him, but I didn’t see where he fit on the Mets’ roster.
Pinch hitter and smacks lefty when he’s on. Occasional OF but he is trash there
Its crazy how quickly this happened, 2019 NLCS he was the only Cardinal who could hit the Nationals pitching
Hope he recovers, great guy
bad deal for jose hope he recovers and finds a new home guys a gamer and a worker but his d make chris duncan look like gg and duncan was bad in the field. (btw my source for duncan being a bad fielder was himself. he used his “excellent” fielding as a comparison to current players on his radio show before he passed… btw chris keep enjoying them “man sodas” up there)
Jedd Gyorko: “I’m available.”
More like Franco.
That’s exactly who popped into my mind as I read the headline.
Gyorko actually would make a great Met. He has a big jaw, no smile, his name will probably sound great in a NY accent to others in queens,, leading to some idea that fans like him (but they’ll really just like saying “Jerkah” and later “Jedd Jerkoff”) AND he performs just below average enough for the team to believe he’ll be a rebound right now. Oh tell me I’m wrong!
With a name like Hosmer for HOF, how can you possibly be wrong?
^ LMAO
The names a long term bet I have with myself lol the name goes when I believe he’s no longer got a chance at making it!
Well…? We’re waiting.
It’s gonna be a long wait but it’ll be worthwhile!
Hope I’m not the only one that read this as Judge Smails
Oh, so you’re still living in pretend land? Good to know.
i wanna say i heard on the radio today that the cards picked up jedd but it was brief and really just herd his name and the cards.
rough
So how quickly does a member of the Mets front office get on the phone with Maikel Franco’s agent after this development? Franco might actually be a better fit than Martinez would have been as he’d be able to split time at 3B with Davis and provide a bigger bat than Martinez would ever bring.
Fairly unlikely considering the newest post on MLBTR
Umpire was in the way fielding a ground ball? Someone was out of position horribly, either the umpire or Martinez … seems they would basically have to be lined up next to each other for this to happen
saw him limping off the field yesterday but didnt see the play until now; don’t think you can blame the ump; ball just inside the line and Martinez lost his balance and stumbled forward into the ump who was in position to call ball fair/foul down the line.
I see. Strange
Terrible way to get injured. I know it’s a flukey injury but do wonder if umps should be required to stay in some form of shape in order to improve their own reaction time.
Yessir.
The body type of most MLB umps is known as: Imminent Cardiac Arrestmorph. If the concern is that smaller fellas are unable to “control the game” the easy fix there would be to just go ahead & arm them. Problem solved.
I would be in favor of disputed calls being decided by a duel between the umpire and some lucky fan.
Ducky down.
I’d like to throw my hat in the ring for a DD (Designated Dueler) opening. I know I’m faster than say… Joe West or Angel Hernandez.
There’s a catch. Before firing, you must eat one dozen donuts. The winner and still champion…Cowboy Joe West.
Figures.
Here we have this great solution & MLB has to come in & stack the deck, thus undermining some actual Must See TV.
Some fans can pack away the food.
Ducky, Did you see the clip of Bobby Witt Jr’s 484-foot home run? A shortstop who has barely played Rookie League ball. Just 20 years old and having a big spring. It’ll be interesting to see how long his service time is manipulated.
I did not.
I’ve watched a handful of innings this spring. Been listening to the Yanks. I like listening to baseball & college football on the radio.
I prefer to stream in general. But I’ve a lot of positive associations with those sports on the radio.
Good to see some good young players arriving in KC. It looks like they’re starting to have something going on. Really great fans. & – in my experience – they seemed to do a good job “handling” their club’s success.
CBS Sports has it as a baseball headline. I wonder how it compares to the longest one given up by his father.
The pace of baseball has always made it a natural for radio. The only other sport I still watch is college basketball, though not as avidly as I used to. The game is not as good as it once was, due largely to the insane number of transfers. The fun of the sport was always watching players develop over four years. Now, the players transfer if they don’t get playing time. A total of 353 D-1 schools (too many) and 900 transfers a year. No continuity. It’ll be worse next year with the fifth year of eligibility for all current players due to Covid plus no sit-outs for transfers. I am on the fence re March Madness this year.
Yeah, I just saw it. Thanks for the heads up.
Man.
I was just semi-bashing TTO baseball. Pretty hard not to marvel at that shot though. Mercy. He got all’ve that one, man.
I’m pretty much a baseball, football, boxing guy. But my son plays & my girlfriend did, too. So I live in a basketball home. & I love the tournament. It’ll be on & I’ll catch some of it. It’s become – more or less – an excuse that both my son & I use to get some just hanging out time in.
transfers don’t bother me that much- it’s just any guy with a hint of NBA talent leaving instead of developing their talent-
i watch these teams today and just see the teams of my youth destroying them.
Ducky, that’s the best reason for looking forward to an annual sports event ever! Hope you and your son have a blast!
Thanks @hubcap.
He’s a teenager. Man. Time. Ya know?
But he now has this whole complicated teenager life.
It’s been he & I the entire time.
& the best thing is that we actually like one another. But yeah. Looking forward to it.
Total respect… Do it right, Sir, and raise a glass in my direction (Memphis)
I’m confused you want DD umps?
@ducky. Don’t you MISS the silky smooth radio broadcasts of Vin Scully!?!?
I’m a Mets fan and can’t stand listening to our tv team, mainly Hernandez. Darling has gotten much better, but Keith is one of the least professional tv men out there. He has incredible insight but is so negatively opinionated and unaware of his microphone habits.
He’s always tapping on something or sniffling or shuffling something.
I have the MLB package (highly recommend!) and one of the options is to listen to either team’s RADIO feed during the game. It’s so much more informative than tv telecasts. If you aren’t staring at the tv, you don’t have any idea who is batting, what the count is, how many outs, who is pitching, etc.
Tv commentators constantly talk about anything and everything other than the actual game action! I like to put a game on and do other things, especially if I’m outside. Without replays, I’d never know what was actually happening live.
Ps. I vote John Kruk as the most entertaining tv announcer!
When I watch games I normally have music on instead of the commentary. It was a concession to a former girlfriend but turns out that I prefer it.
MLB package is a must have.
Another option is you can choose “ambient crowd noise” too which is pretty cool. At least, I think you still can.
I spend a lot of time in the truck (generally ~ 50K miles/year). I’m a contractor & a pretty passionate sportsman. Lots of windshield time. Lots of baseball on the radio.
Malakalaka balance board of trust, costumes optional.
@ducky i sit here and wonder if mo and the dewitts pulled the trigger on the nolan deal partly because of kc. i can tell most of mo besides the area around kc is cards country but kc is building something like in 14&15 and they have a new owner that seems that he wants to win. if the cards didn’t make a real move to make us competitors i can see kc stealing something of our fan base especially if there willing to spend to stay competitors. last few years in stl there has been a lot of unrest with lack of improvement and the whole “low hanging fruit” has been wearing a lot of thin
What’s up, @brodie-bruce –
That could very well be. & – yeah – I think the Royals are starting to have something going on down there. In my experience, MO is still Cardinals territory. I’ve a really good friend that lives in St Louis. I go see him every couple years.
You’re the boots on the ground, though. So you’d have a better sense.
Here’s my outsider perspective on the Cards & Arenado:
The Cardinals are actually not an easy team to improve. They pretty much always have “pretty good” players everywhere on their roster (& seem to always have young players coming up). So if they don’t land a player the caliber of Goldschmidt or Arenado it’s difficult for them to improve.
The Yankees have this same “problem”. Once LeMahieu was re-signed it became very difficult to find (realistic*) upgrades.
This is a good spot to find your club in.
I know George Steinbrenner would actually make reactionary moves in re to the Mets & red sox. It…man, it wasn’t always for the best, however.
* doing something like signing Brantley as a fourth outfielder is not realistic
that’s kool ducky that you and your kid can sit down and watch a sport some of my best sports memories are cracking cold ones and yelling at the cards on tv with the old man. (lol which are still going on strong to this day)
It’s definitely something I hold dearly to.
This (& the Super Bowl) is probably the our only similar experience. He chose tennis over baseball (bad parenting?), likes basketball (same?) & he’s a Seahawks fan (really, really bad parenting?) so this is kinda it.
Crack a Bud for me next time you’re watching a game with your pops. I guarantee you, he looks forward to spending the time with you.
@ducky the cards and the yanks are in the same position on improving as were both are organizations that can’t tank we have to rebuild/retool on the fly. my point on kc was there up and coming and cards have been stumbling in mediocrity and it’s to most of us it’s getting old. kc isn’t going to steal fans from the eastern half of mo. where kc can steal fans are in the western half of the state and kansas ok and some of the areas on that side of the state that are disgruntled cards fans
will do ducky though now we crack more brees working together working side jobs even if he is a pain to work with sometimes. (he’s only a pain on the master and pupil premise)
I’ll add Nebraska as another place they could make inroads. I go on hunting trips there half dozen – or so – times a year.
Used to see nothing but Cardinal hats. But I do see some of the cowboys rocking Royals caps now.
Good point.
There are certain teams that will never have the “luxury” of tanking. Thank God, serious. In my opinion, tanking is THE problem to be addressed right now. I think if that particular mentality can be gotten rid of, it will have a whole slew of trickle down positive effects.
You come from a family of builders, then. Nice. No wonder we get along.
But I’m not touching the “master & pupil premise”. Doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see where that’s going lol.
i think kc coming back to relevancy and new owner is pushing the cards more so than the cubs being good. if kc’s new owner is smart and continues to build upon what they have and keep it sustaining they very well can take 1/2 of mo and a lot of “fringe” cards fans. btw the fringe fans i’m talking about are cards followers that have no team and there choices of teams to rout for are chc, kc, col, hou, tex or stl and until recently other than the cards well they haven’t been great.
the master pupil thing is just two stubborn krauts going at it lol
Yeah, a number of these Midwest teams incorporate the “fringe fans”. Here in MN they draw from the Dakotas & Iowa (though that’s primarily Cub territory).
& that’s one of my gripes with the Cardinals, by the way. They’ve a large enough market that they shouldn’t be getting extra draft picks in my opinion. They don’t squander them which is admirable. Yet it’s a loophole. I’d love the Yanks to have an extra pick.
Alas.
I have a pretty good idea what it looks like. I’ve been around a few father/son crews in various trades. Couldn’t help but smile when you termed it “master & pupil”. Ya know?
That’s a perfect description of the dynamic I’ve seen.
As an older fella, I’m rooting for your father to resist passing the torch for as long as he can. It’ll happen. But that’ll be kind of a sad day, man.
@jim stem i’m not a dodgers fan but i do miss vinny in the booth just something about his approach to calling a game and his sound. nothing beats a good summer day with vinny, uecker, or jack buck on the radio while working on a car or what not. here in stl ever since buck passed cards games on the radio just hasn’t been the same but then again how do you replace guys like vinny, bob, or jack.
hey ducky i agree with you i get so tired of hearing that “were small market” and a lot this on mlb because they don’t count the stl metro area (which covers 23 counties 11 of them in il) just the pop of stl which is pretty small. the stl area is shaped like this the jobs are in the city but most of the pop lives in the counties.
when it comes to my dad hanging it up he pretty much has he last few years in the union we’re just so he can work with his boy. at this point we just work on “charity projects” that they give us a nice donation lol.
Say it ain’t so, Cafecito
RIP, Rheal Cormier. A 16-year MLB career is impressive.
Damn.
We’re the same age. Or were the same age, I should say.
Pretty good career. Rip.
And he pitched in two Olympics… TWENTY years apart.
I can only dream of accomplishments like his. RIP, athlete.
Really liked him a lot. Seemed like a gentleman. I really hate cancer and participate in Relay for Life every year. Between COVID and cancer these are not easy times. Love the name Rheal Cormier and I’m glad he had a good career. Too soon gone.
+1 for doing cool & honorable stuff.
That’s sad to see. Hobo Joe has a very unorthodox batting stance and he made it work. Hopefully he can make a comeback at some point
No problem guys! Mute muts will go 162-0 and deGrom will start and Wall 7 ws games! Hyuck!!!!!
Fransico Liriano just became Omar and Ozzie! We winning 162 boy’! DeGrom will bethe first 100 game winner
@mastershake that will happen if the mets don’t have 2 albacores hanging around there necks
That’s the second torn meniscus this Spring. Wonder if that’s new, haven’t noticed that injury before. Since I’ve had one, I usually notice such things. Six weeks off and then six more weeks to ramp up Then you have to get back to being baseball ready. Some recover faster.
It’s been around for awhile, @whyhayzee.
A lot of times it’s fairly minor. For example, when Jose Silva had it, he didn’t even miss a start.
Yes, Joan Samuelson had it six weeks before the Olympic Marathon Trials, won that race and then Gold Medaled the 1984 Olympics. She’s my hero. I was just wondering how many more of these injuries we might see due to the ramping up after the fake season. It’s an easy fix, mine took 20 minutes.
I believe we are going to see far too many injuries this season. I just hope it doesn’t become the major story line & shape too much of the pennant races.
i wonder if the opposite is true players were ramping to heavy to soon in the offseason trying to get ready for a full season after a cup o coffee season. (sorry can’t say it wasn’t a real season yes it was short but everyone played by the same rules yes i wanted see a 162 but it didn’t happen. to say last season wasn’t real is asinine last season was real and presented new challenges and tested mangers and gms in a short season)
Hope he recovers soon but he never really had much of a place on this team. A right handed pinch hitter who can’t field is likely just gonna clog up the roster. Although, if Davis starts they’ve only really Villar on the bench as a right handed pinch hitter.
It’s a shame, but Martinez didn’t have much chance to make the team anyway.