3:03pm: The Mets have announced the moves, Healey tweets . They also transferred Lugo to the 60-day IL, meaning he won’t return before May 31.
12:01PM: Khalil Lee will be called up from Triple-A along with Fargas, according to Newsday’s Tim Healey (via Twitter).
11:31AM: The Mets will place both Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil on the 10-day injured list due to hamstring injuries, Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reports (Twitter link). Outfield prospect Johneshwy Fargas will be called up from Triple-A to fill one of the spots on the active roster.
The news isn’t a surprise, as both Conforto and McNeil left yesterday’s game due to injury — Conforto with tightness in his right hamstring, and McNeil with a similar issue in his left hamstring. McNeil already missed a couple of games earlier this week due to cramping problems, and he stated after yesterday’s game that his latest hamstring problem was related those previous cramps.
Usually two of the Mets’ more consistent offensive performers, both Conforto (.230/.356/.336 in 135 PA) and McNeil (.242/.336/.374 in 113 PA) have been pretty average thus far in 2021. Conforto’s performance has been under a particular microscope, as he is scheduled to hit free agency this winter and extension talks with the Mets didn’t seem to gain much traction.
While Conforto and McNeil hadn’t been hitting like their usual selves, they at least represented two active regulars on a Mets team that now has 12 players on the injured list. J.D. Davis and Seth Lugo could both soon be starting rehab assignments and ace right-hander Jacob deGrom could be back as early as Friday, but in the near term, the Mets are still very short-handed.
The outfield is a particular issue, with Dominic Smith and Kevin Pillar holding down the fort in left and center field, while converted infielders Jake Hager and Jose Peraza aren’t reliable fill-in options for Conforto. This opens the door for Fargas, a full-time outfielder who is now set to make his MLB debut after eight minor league seasons.
An 11th-round pick for the Giants in the 2013 draft, Fargas spent much of his career in San Francisco’s farm system before signing with the Mets in the 2019-20 offseason. The 26-year-old is known to have a solid glove (capable of playing all three outfield positions) and some notable speed, with 243 stolen bases in 344 attempts during his minor league career. Fargas has hit .255/.331/.343 over 2289 plate appearances in the minors, and hadn’t reached Triple-A prior to this season.
Peraza and Hager can likely handle McNeil’s duties at second base until Davis returns, which will give the infield some breathing room as Jonathan Villar can then move from third base to factor into the second base picture. Given this infield depth on hand, the Mets could opt to call up another outfielder to fill the other roster hole. Outfielder Khalil Lee could be a candidate for another promotion, as he was recently called up and sent back down to Triple-A without making an appearance in any big league games.
Patrick Mazeika’s time to shine
Good one! I needed a chuckle on a Monday morning. Thank you!
Dude is clutch in ‘runner on 3rd, fielder’s choice scores the winning run’ situations.
Prospect… The dude is 26 years old. He was a prospect 8 years ago!!! Ugh smh… this team is driving me nuts.
What are they suppose to do?
I wonder if fans know that you can’t just sign 25 free agents or make a huge trade every time a player gets hurt? Probably not.
Fungible filler Johneshwy Fargas. Use of the term prospect seems overboard.
Prospect and minor leaguer are same now. Like dancing with the stars should be dancing with people you may have heard of.
Rough.
Braves and Phillies fan will think they have a shot a month longer than they would have now lol
On the contrary, the Mets may need a month longer to dig themselves out of a hole to reach playoffs contention lol
Yes. Because the healthy Mets were scaring everyone with that 0.5 game lead and their consistent inability to hit with RISP. Going on 3 years now.
To be fair, they weren’t ‘healthy’ then, either. They’ve been missing 2/5 of their rotation all year.
Doesn’t explain the terrible RISP hitting, though.
They’ve gotten some of the best starting pitching. So really missing Carrasco and Syndergaard didn’t really hurt. It may eventually, but for now it didn’t.
So the games where we have luchechi a 3-4 run lead…… (3 games) and he blew it. That didn’t affect us bc our main 3 did good? Pederson also blew a game like that… our record would be +2-3 wins right now if they pitched carrasco the games Lucy his pitched
Carrasco and Syndergaardblow games too. Especially when they don’t get run support. Excuses like crazy.
@VonPurpleHayes: “They’ve gotten some of the best starting pitching. So really missing Carrasco and Syndergaard didn’t really hurt.”
I generally agree with you, but this is 100% wrong. David Peterson’s ERA+ is 80. Joey Lucchesi’s is 43. Peterson’s been OK at best (4 great starts, 3 atrocious starts) and Lucchesi has been downright terrible.
A healthy Syndergaard and a healthy Carrasco would have been enormous improvements. To say otherwise is pretty absurd.
Thank you for explaining it better. That’s what I was trying to say. Many games that lucheici pitched and we had no chance to win. Even when scoring 4+ runs.
@rct I’m more trying to emphasize that those injuries don’t improve the Mets offense, and honestly that’s been the problem so far this season. So I don’t think those injuries are as significant as they may seem. Of course tge Mets improve with those guys in the rotation. Not denying that, but they need to shake this offensive funk.
Mets were not healthy the day before these two got hurt…
No team is healthy if the definition of that is “no one on IL” … things balance out; if and when Carrasco and Thor come back strong someone else, like Stro or whomever will slump. Every team looks good with no injuries and everything going well.
It only took the Mets 4 days too long to place McNeil on the IL.
Can’t blame the Wilpons for the mismanagement now.
@Robrock30
He got injured on May 11th, so it’s more than 4.
Don’t worry Francisco Lindor will carry the team all the way to the cellar.
And Rojas will bat him second.
Nothing is going to change until Cohen rids himself of any holdover in any level of Mets management.
Cohen needed to clean House from the Wilpon toxic holdovers out of the gate.
Instead he brings them all back rehires Sandy and leaves the amatuer manager Rojas manage. Same results who knew LOL!
Blaming the manager for a lousy roster. Some fans never learn. It’s like Phillies/Gabe Kapler 2.0.
Davey johnson and billy Martindisagree.
@Cey Hey
I blame the manger when you have a struggling rookie pitcher, Peterson against Tampa, gives you seven of the best innings so far; you had a day off before and a rested bullpen and you run him out there in the eighth and he gives up a home run, you leave him in and he gives up a double, you leave him in and he gives up another run to tie the game and lose what confidence he would have gained and you lose 3-2 when bullpen gives up 1 more and wind up getting swept.
For the rest I agree with you you can’t do much about that.
Get use to the rhyme Francisco Lindor 0-4!
Bat him eight until he proves he can hit in NY
where would you prefer Lindor to bat? seems like a pretty good spot to put the best hitter on the team
Lindor is currently the worst hitter on the team. So 9th.
12th
There’s a Fargas and a Vargas in the article. Typo?
Dont see a vargas but as long as you said it, might as well sign back jason vargas
Mickey Callaway is predicting we’ll see that move tomorrow.
Mets fans keep saying Cohen will fix this or fix that. I believe he will only make things worse. There’s nothing more detrimental to a Major League team than a meddlesome owner, which is what Cohen is proving to be. It’s like having a knucklehead Metzmerized poster calling the shots. That’s not how you do it. The guy needs to step back and let his baseball people make the baseball decisions.
They had that in the Wilpons except they couldn’t open the checkbooks. Maybe we can give him a full year or three before passing judgment. He didn’t buy a fantasy team.
By opening checkbooks, are you saying overspend on free agents? That’s not how championship teams are built.
@ Cey Hey,
What decisions is Cohen making? He said he would stay out of baseball decisions. I’m not aware of him budding into day to day baseball operations.
Chili Davis?
What are you talking about Cey Hey?
There goes Conforto’s trade value. He was tanking and this makes it worse. Smh
@ Paul Duberstein. They’re not trading him. They intend to extend him.
Taker away Conforto’s short-season “career year” from .2020 and he’s a .252 hitter with a .825 OPS. What makes you think he’s worthy of a megadeal?
A mega deal ? Absolutely not. But 5 years 100 million seems like a legitimate possibility.
He will want more than that. Tough call as the Mets will need to decide on future direction. He’s not a difference-maker. Plus, they will also have decisions to make on de Grom, Syndergaard, and Stroman. Realistically, the team is not ready to contend.
You are right. Conforto is not a guy to break the bank for. Good outfielder but not a star. Rather see thor and marcus get paid.
We don’t need to make any decisions on Degrom. We have him for 2 more years. And I agree on conforto. Don’t over pay. Good player but not Betts. Not even close. A contract like Wheelers is the most if go.
Exactly – his perceived value is greater than his actual value as CeyHey said. Plus the Mets will want to sign pitchers. So I expect that the FO has been exploring trades.
Paul, it will be interesting to see how the de Grom situation plays out. The best pitcher in the game, but at his age, he’s probably worth more to a surefire contender than the Mets. He will surely opt out. A crucial winter for the Mets in determining their future direction. They have to decide if they can realistically contend in the early part of de Grom’s new deal, as will he.
Degrom can’t…. opt out this year…..
Should be fun seeing them in Atlanta. And by the time I drive up from South Carolina to see them in NY next week half the team will be on the DL.
I think someone needs to do a wellness check on Mark Polishuk. Apparently he had a stroke right after typing out the name John.
Yeah, I had to actually click the link because I was sure he just mashed a bunch of keys after ‘John’.
The Mets were hoping Conforto could avoid the IL but he stuck out his elbow.
Fargas got a REAL long look late into spring training. Mazeika, who is a catcher/1b, did as well. Fargas looked quite good defensively and Mazeika looked to have a pretty solid line drive bat.
Not sure who the Mets might have to trade right now, but it may be time to scour teams’ roster who are well under .500 and look to add veteran utility infielder and 4th outfielder type. Chris Owens, Jake Cave or even a higher base salary guy like Lorenzo Cain or Whit Merrifield.
Lee and Fargas were both already on the 40 man rosters. If we have to call up anyone else, I think someone has to go. I don’t believe anyone else on the AAA team is on the 40 man.
Bad time for all these injuries with the scheduled games coming up against our NL East rivals. Just a split over the next week or so would look pretty good. It’d be a great time for Lindor, Alonso and McCann to finally heat up.
Lindor
Villar
Alonso
Smith
Pillar
McCann
Hager
Fargas
Pitcher
…starting to get thin. With Davis set to begin a rehab, I sure hope there aren’t any set backs. Need his bat back in that line up.
Fargas was not on the 40 man. They had to put Lugo on the 60 day IL in order to add Fargas
Time to give Puig a call?
No
They finally decided to put Lugo on the 60-day. I didn’t think it would be for Johneshwy Fargas, though…