The Mets had a rough end to their seven-game winning streak in Tampa Bay this weekend. They were handed a sweep by the Rays. They now limp into a high-stakes week of action against the Braves and Marlins facing the potential loss of more key regulars. Michael Conforto, in particular, appears heading to the injured list with a hamstring injury, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network (via Twitter). Conforto (along with Jeff McNeil) left yesterday’s game due to injury.
Brandon Nimmo, unfortunately, won’t be the answer. The Mets’ injured centerfielder is abandoning his rehab assignment and opting for further rest until he is without pain in his finger, per Tim Healey of Newsday. Nimmo hasn’t appeared in a game since May 2nd.
The Mets could use him now more than ever, especially considering his hot start. Nimmo had raked to the tune of a .318/.430/.439 triple slash line across his first 80 plate appearances. With Albert Almora also on the injured list, the Mets will turn to Jake Hager, Jose Peraza and, perhaps eventually, prospect Khalil Lee to fill in. Super-sub Jonathan Villar is already in a regular role replacing injured regular J.D. Davis at the hot corner.
The good news is that Jacob deGrom could be back in time to start Friday’s ballgame, per Bill Ladson of MLB.com. He may still go on a rehab assignment, however, pending the results of a bullpen session on Tuesday. Friday against the Marlins is the earliest Mets fans will see their all-world ace back on the hill.
This is exactly why the Mets will never contend with Sandy at the helm. We don’t upgrade at any position of weakness in the field this off-season (and I’m perfectly fine with not signing Springer). Not only do we sit with JD Davis at 3B, Nimmo at CF, and a corner OF spot to a 1B, we provide absolutely no depth at all to any positions other than signing Villar. Look at the absolute mess this team is. Jake Hager and Peraza to cover the OF?! Holy smokes are we doomed.
I agree that Sandy punted in the off season by not balancing the team, but he signed some good depth, to an already deep team. Right now it’s just a lot of injuries at once.
Not to pile on but pointing to Villar as the one bright spot in the depth that was added is pretty damning too.
But to cut a bit of slack, it’s not easy to prepare for so many injuries to every position when you have to maintain a 40 man roster. The best boost is getting veterans on minor league pacts but the organizations that most easily pick those guys up have good longstanding reputations doing right by vets in those situations, taking care of them, helping them, making them comfortable and clear on where their opportunity lies and letting them loose if they have a much greater opportunity elsewhere than the team can expect to offer. Perhaps the Mets have not built that reputation so well?
Not many teams are two games over with what the Mets have dealt with.
NYM has also played the fewest games in MLB (34 or 15% less than ATL/MIA), so is it possible that their record is an illusion? They have 1st place but have 2 more wins than the last place WSH who have played only 2 more games than them at this point. You can’t lose what you don’t play — cough cough.
@RunDMC to further add to your point, the majority of Mets wins have come at home against bad teams. The Mets are a legit playoff contender, and I think they will be all year but this series against Atlanta will tell us a lot about both teams.
Atlanta wins series, missing a sweep by 1 run.
The Mets C team vs the Braves C team isn’t going to tell us anything. Maybe that one team has more depth but the Mets have more significant injuries so it’s not a fair comparison
@MetsFan22, already planting the seed for an excuse to blossom in Oct. lol
How is it an excuse? Do you see our team rn???? If you win today it means nothing at all.
@MetsFan22 So can I take away the Mets wins against the Phillies minor league roster? (No Harper, Realmuto, Segura, Gregorious, Bradley). Of course I can’t. The Mets beat a battered Phillies team. Good teams find a way to win no matter who is playing. The Mets have enough of their core to still win, and this series will tell us if they can battle it out.
Boy stop look at braves teams gtfoh you mut
Homer
Von. I am pretty sure Harper gRegorius and realmuto were in those games the Fightin Phils lost against the Mets. Realmuto Harper and Gregorius were all there when the phils dropped the 3 games april 13-14 aand May 1 ad 2
Harper and Realmuto were in the lineup the game the phillies Did win April 30.
@MetsFan22
The big problem for your Mets is that a lot their injuries are happening to guys with a long history of being injured. You seem to be banking on all these oft-injured players coming back healthy and staying healthy. I love your enthusiasm but y’all got problems. Is Lindor above the Mendoza line yet?
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Every team is dealing with major injury issues this year, this is just the same old Mets.
First place Mets, regardless of who they have played. Injuries are hitting every team, though the 10-day IL works way better than the 15-day DL did. Giancarlo Stanton just hit the IL, and for the Yankees, they should hope he gets better soon. Their depth isn’t very deep. Mike Ford is playing like an AAAA player, and they need foe Estevan Florial to be more than the hype they began promoting to us fans since his 2017 season in A ball and the post season that year. He is still only 23 yet they brought up Ryan LaMarre it is a LONG season.
Injuries derailed the Mets- this was the strongest their bench has been in years
Davis is adequate at 3b
We had depth- Pillar, Almora., villar and Guillorme were depth p[ieces.
Metfan1964 – I loved signing Villar and Pillar, but all you need is one injury and that turns into an absolute disaster after that. Even with just one injury, the name next in the depth chart can make you queasy. You have to plan for more than one injury and especially given the health of our OF players in the past.
And for the record, JD Davis is beyond inadequate at 3B. Depth piece? Sure. Starter in the NL? No.
To be fair, Villar and Pillar have stepped up big time and are providing more offense than some of the stars.
Definitely correct with them playing better than our regular starters. That leads to the questions about Rojas being completely incompetent, but that’s a whole other conversation.
The Mets did a good job stacking those veteran options as depth, but only at the IF spots. Villar and Peraza have been solid, but it seems as if corner OF was ignored completely. Everyone will point to Almora and Pillar, but we are using Dom Smith in LF even WITHOUT injuries. Nimmo does not deserve to play CF and it should have been Nimmo-Pillar-Conforto to begin with. It wasn’t, and that’s exactly where this depth in the corners has been extremely weak. It’s like having JD Martinez out there, with a much less important bat.
Where is Mallex Smith these days? He doesn’r appear on Syracuse’s roster. Did he exercise an opt-out? Not that he wouldn’t be better than either of the two coming up. But he was 46 of 57 stolen base attempts two years ago. That would give them a different look on the basepaths.
Broken foot. No idea when he’ll be back.
Nice loss of short term memory, Birch. Sandy was the Genera Manager from 2010-2018, and built the team up ti a World Series team in 2015. If the Wilpons did not invest so heavily with Bernie Madolf and ties the hands of their GenerL Manager
If Sandy’s hands weren’t ties by the Wilpons’s greed and stupidity, it could have very well turned out differently. Sandy added veteran depth like Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe to perform much like Pillar and Villar are right now. Complimentary pieces to some young ballplayers he had on that team. You can’t manage to fill every spot when you have injury on top of injury. But I do believe Sandy knows how to put together a team.
Well, maybe your memory loss is just as bad. The Mets rode an insane Cespedes bat to the playoffs, and then rode that same insane bat of Daniel Murphy in the post-season. The pitching was there, but the fielding was never. Maybe you can recall the team during the WS. Cespedes in CF, Lucas Duda 1B, Daniel Murphy 2B… all made catastrophic, game and series-changing errors that cost them dearly. Had Cespedes not hit 17 HR (I may be off on that slightly) down the stretch, that team may never have made the playoffs with the construction of that roster. Also, additions at the deadline do not give him a free pass for “constructing” a roster properly. He got entirely lucky that two players completely carried the team. Keep up your Sandy love, though. You’re one of very few supporters.
Are there any unsigned veteran FA bats out there? When I hear names like Jake Hager and Kahlil Lee I don’t really get too excited. Lee is a nice prospect but he doesn’t seem close to being ready for every day MLB service
I believe Cespedes is available, if the Mets want to throw more money away.
Puig?
Giambi?
I also shudder with those two names but right now we are giving quality at bats to Patrick Mazeika??
Nimmo milking that bruised index finger for all it’s worth. He tested it out by doing some simple pointing and it’s still a no go.
Yeah I am sure the guy who plays 100 miles an hour every time he’s on the field is milking an injury. Makes perfect sense…..
I can think of a stud who can play all 3 outfield positions. Kelenic oh no we traded him for a washed up cheating 2B and a one year wonder RP.
“a one year wonder RP.” I will never understand this. Diaz has been really good the last two seasons. Does he never get forgiven for his first (albeit awful) season with the Mets? The days of Mariano Rivera are long gone. There’s no such thing as a perfect closer anymore, but Diaz has been pretty damn good the last 2 years.
Diaz can be decent but he needs to be Mo Rivera if the Mets want that trade to look good ten years from now.
@VonPurpleHayes
Diaz has been good? When? 4.11 ERA
Last year with no Fans and missing all the big bats and teams due to Covid schedule. Diaz is always going to be inconsistent; bad trade bad deal bad pitcher.
His FIP is half that. Defense matters bud.
@national pastime
Thanks; you said it all!
Frazier’s phone probably ringing
Same Old Mets LOL!
What makes this high-stakes? What are the stakes? It’s mid-May…
ATL/MIA are most likely going to be NYM’s biggest competition for a playoff spot. Every divisional game against them will count, especially with NYM having played less games than all others (6 less than ATL/MIA) because of missing the opening series. NYM being in first place has been the one takeaway, but that could quickly change by losing both the series to ATL & MIA. NYM will come into the series vs. ATL without Conforto, Nimmo, deGrom, and ATL hopefully gets Acuna back. Call it whatever you want, but it’s an important series that could set the tone for what’s been a close division race with many more division games to play.
Curious as to why you’re saying ATL/MIA as opposed to the 2nd place Phillies and not too far out of it Nats. I don’t disagree with you, but it seems odd why you’re picking two random teams. The entire NL is full of talented rosters with huge holes in them. Every team is going to challenge the Mets for a division title. I still think the Braves take it, but wouldn’t be surprised if anyone else does.
ATL/MIA represented the division in the playoffs (albeit in a short season) and their team is only going to get better getting back Chisolm, Marte, Sanchez, etc. I have no doubt that with Harper/Realmuto and pitching behind Nola, Wheeler, Eflin – PHI will also be in contention. PHI has an advantage over MIA in a full season.
Ahh. That makes sense. I think the Sanchez injury is troubling, as injuries were an issue in the minors with the Phils as well. But yeah, the Marlins have some exciting players. Chisolm is really fun to watch, and he should be a big boost to their lineup immediately.
On a sidenote: Jesus Aguilar is on fire, but look at his splits:
home: 0 HR (.619 OPS)
away: 9 HR (1.118 OPS)
Since joining MIA in free agency in 2020, he has NEVER hit a HR at Marlins stadium (loanDepot park).
I’ve never understood this logic. A game in May counts the same as a game in September to the final standings.
So the standings are now based on who has the most injuries? Is that how the Mets are in first place? Or is it that maybe just maybe they have a pretty good team?
And they allowed up and coming prospect Tim Tebow “TIME” to walk away from the game !!!!
So much for it being the owners
15 billion dollars buys being swept by the Braves.
The Mets are just a write off for Cohen.
Fan, my tookas!
I have to once again question one of two things:
1. Mets training staff has consistently failed miserably, or
2. The players simply aren’t warming up properly pregame.
Our injuries, outside of Nimmo and Almora, are all noncontact scenarios.
Running to first base and injuring a hamstring in the first inning?
Body cramps?
Sore index finger in the top batting hand?
Lat muscle pulls?
This isn’t just a Mets team issue, it’s a problem all across baseball. But being a Mets fan, I follow this team more closely than others. If this training and conditioning staff is the same this year as it has been for the past 3 or 4 years, maybe therein lies the problem?
Time to call the Pirates and lower their payroll some more.
And is it just me, or is Rojas being outmanaged by every other manager in game situations?