3:05pm: Mets manager Carlos Mendoza says that Marte will be shut down from baseball activities for two weeks and will be sidelines for at least four weeks. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to relay the news on X.
2:20pm: The Mets announced that outfielder Starling Marte has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 23, with a right knee bone bruise. Outfielder Ben Gamel has been selected to take his spot on the roster. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man, which is now full.
It was reported over the weekend that Marte has been dealing with knee soreness for about three weeks. He has been playing through the ailment and generally performing well, but it seemed to become too much recently. He departed Saturday’s game due to that knee and was set for an MRI on Monday. It’s unclear how long the Mets expect him to be out, but they’ll give him at least another week to rest up.
The knee soreness didn’t seem to be slowing him down much, as he’s currently sporting a line of .278/.328/.416 for the year, production which translates to a 116 wRC+. That includes an excellent .304/.360/.457 showing in the month of June, when the issue cropped up.
It’s been a nice bounceback for Marte, who hit just .248/.301/.324 for a 76 wRC+ last year while dealing with lingering effects of groin surgery. He was back to health and in good form for the first half of this year but will now have to overcome this bone bruise before continuing with his bounceback season.
That’s a loss for the Mets, given how well Marte has been performing. They still have Brandon Nimmo and Harrison Bader in two outfield spots, but Marte’s absence could open up more playing time for DJ Stewart or Tyrone Taylor. Stewart can hit but isn’t a great fielder, while Taylor has been in the inverse position this year.
The 32-year-old Gamel will join the outfield mix alongside those two. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason and has been performing very well in Triple-A this year. He has drawn a walk in 16.3% of his 190 plate appearances and has also hit seven home runs. A .400 batting average on balls in play has also helped, with Gamel sporting a line of .314/.423/.538 and 149 wRC+ on the year for Syracuse.
Carrying even a fraction of that to the big leagues would be a nice boost for the club, though it’s a far cry from his career numbers in the big leagues. He has hit .252/.332/.384 in his in his 685 major league games dating back to his 2016 debut, leading to a 96 wRC+. He has been playing all three outfield slots for Syracuse this year and has done so in his major league career, making him a solid fit for a bench role on the big league club while Marte is out.
Gamel has more than five years of major league service time and therefore can’t be optioned without his consent, so he’ll need to be removed from the 40-man if the Mets want to take him off the active roster later in the season.
Hopefully Alvarez will hit fifth from now on
… a good idea.
Glad to see Gsmel back up. He will give you 100%.
Agree 100%. He’s always ready to play and while he’s not great at any one thing, he’s doesn’t have glaring weaknesses either. A very nice depth piece.
“Agree 100%”…Ditto. It’s hard not to like guys like Ben Gamel. Gamers who give their all on every play and play each game like it’s their last. Hopefully, Ben makes it to 10 yrs service time, although he’s still got almost 4 years to go.
Pirates should have kept him. He would be an upgrade over most of their hitters not named Cutch or Reynolds.
Nutting must have thought he was getting too expensive.
He’ll already get a pension, just not fully maximized yet. He’s only 31 and is productive enough. He has a shot.
Crap
Perfectly timed for a return after the All Star break with a long run of games with sub .500 records. Next 10 games will be tough without Marte, Diaz and the roster spot but if they get through this stretch still within fighting distance of the WC spot then we get replenished with possibly Marte and Senga we may not be the sellers I thought we’d be by the deadline. I don’t think we’ll be buyers unless it’s taking on salary.
Scott will be back up too, and in my opinion from what I’ve seen, he’s a clear upgrade over megill and peterson
Ma4170 they’re considering bringing Scott up an using a 6-man rotation for this for this next stretch starting Friday in which they have 17 straight games, but have not decided yet. But he is on a tight innings limit this year. As a converted reliever, his max IP in a season was 89 last year. As such, he’ll probably be limited to 120 – 130 IP this year, but they want those innings to last as deep into the season as possible.
I know, and i wish the limit wasn’t so strict
If you watch Mets games as I do, you know how poor Marte covers RF. He may have the arm but pulls up lame on balls that he should get to. He is probably the worst RF in MLB and needs to be a DH.
Very true. But with Martinez occupying that spot Marte never gets the chance to DH. They basically have two DH’s
Marte shuts himself down from baseball activities often going back to his days with the Pirates.
I like Gamel. Not the best player in the world, kind of like a walmart version of Bader. With that being said, he has a Hunter Pence like feel to his game. Don’t mind them giving him a chance. Would rather have him up at this point over Stewart. Stewart needs an opportunity to play everyday or else is production craters. Hes not going to get that with our team, too many outfielders on the roster and his defense is below average
LFGMets,
The Mets should option Stewart to AAA and recall either Baty or Acuna to see if they can perform at 2B as they have McNeil who can play OF well.
@Robrock30 I agree but I think Stewart is out of options
Obviously not a Mets fan. What are the Mets fans thoughts? Are you enjoying hovering around the WC spot are do want to blow it up? So many players to trade Sevy, Otto, Deikman, Bader, McNeil, Marte, Manena, JD Martinez, Alonso. That’s a good problem to have. I know no one wants Torres, DJL, Stanton, Rizzo etc on the Yankees.
Here’s a trade scenario. What team says no. Judge and Torres for Alonso and Lindor. Explain. I want Yankees to pay Soto and Dominez when healthy. The Yankees have plenty of Outfielders but no first baseman. I think a win win for both teams
@ mlbnyyfan Still too early to say. It took only 20 or so days for the team to go from being left for dead to being back in the hunt. We still have 37 days till the deadline. My personal opinion is that we don’t have the rotation to go very far in the playoffs. Suggesting that Senga, Scott, and Severino are a capable top 3 is possible, but a stretch, IMO.
At the end of the day, it may come down to what the trade market is paying or charging. If Stearns feels the sellers are getting more-than-normal value back and the buyers have to overpay, then he may sell of. I its the other way around, he will buy and give this roster a chance.
Its been speculated that the Mets could sell on Severino, QUintana, and Manaea believing that Senga, SCott and butto are upgrades, and the departing pitchers can improve on that further.
mlbnyyfan just fyi when they started 0-5 BOBROCK and LFGMETS were like “nobody believed me when I was predicting a 100 loss season and look whose laughing now” and “this is a circus freak show embarrassment” LMAO haha
@mlbNY
If i was GM IMHO i would probably say no from both sides.
Judge is injury prone and if i remember right will have a lingering foot issue (lisfranc i believe) the rest of his career and making more per year and longer while Lindor has been a warrior and rarely misses a game while still producing at minimum very good defensive skills at a top position and more times than not ends up on the mvp voting (usually top 10). Also SS can usually move pretty much anywhere else on the diamond as they age. OF is pretty much OF or 1st base. From the yankee side Judge and Soto are carrying the team with their bats. Lindor overall does well but he can not carry the offense like Judge does. Also huge PR hit on both teams if you swap em. Also what do you do with Volpe? Do you convert either one whom probably havent played another position on the fly during a playoff hunt that they have never played before?
Torres has been down this season and really doesnt offer much to the team he is basically another mcneil and the mets have tons of options for the infield both short and long term at their current levels of play. Alonso is up and down but his bat atleast when on is dangerous and always a big threat to go deep. Also while vientos maybe an option for the future are you betting on it if you are pushing for the wildcard? Also when rizzo comes back what do you do? bench rizzo or alonso or stanton because all 3 cant really be out there at the same time. One would be an expensive bench bat.
They look very good right now, and it’s mostly been the offense. It scares me though when a lineup all gets hot at once bc it generally means they slump together too.
I think the scenario you heard about seems likely. Trade severino and manaea with senga and scott coming and butto in the wings.
Not sure how closely you follow them, but Sproat is the one I’m most excited about.
@ Ma4170 Sproat has only 6 or 7 starts in AA. Too soon to set a timeline on him. I follow the minors very closely for twelve years now. I’ve seen too many times when a pitcher was great for 6 or 8 starts, then the league figured him out an hammered him for a stretch – sometimes for just a couple of starts, sometimes two full months. Its part of the growth and learning process in the minors..
No doubt, but you can also see when certain guys have the type of stuff that can be dominating at times. Sproat seems to have that. Tidwell has flashed it at times, but is struggling w/ command again in AAA. I actually think McLean seems even more balanced than both on the pitching side, but his AA transition has been rough.
At this point, it looks to me like McLean may have warranted more seasoning in high A, especially since he’s playing two ways and has two skill sets to learn and master. Right now, some are starting to wonder whether he is even a starter moving forward, rather than a reliever.
Theoretical idea, but not a lot of practical basis for it right now. For the time being, they’re in the playoff hunt. Not the time to be experimenting with minor leaguers who are not performing at peak levels in AAA.
If you want to replace McNeil, then just keep using Iglesias while he’s still hot. Yes, he is hitting over his head right now. But you can wait till he cools down before calling anyone up.
Baty’s bat has gone cold over the past 10 games or so. This is exactly why he needed to go down to AAA in the first place: to see whether or not he can hit there for more than 4 weeks, or if the league will figure him out and shut him down. Now that they’ve shut him down, let’s see how long does it take him to make the adjustments and recover. Because THAT is what’s been stopping him from being a major leaguer. And he’s only played 3 games at 2B in the minors thus far.
Acuna’s improvement has been significant over these past 5 or 6 weeks after a poor start. But it was a very poor start, and he’s still got a way to go before he is ready to be called up.
If the Mets fall out of the playoff race, then experiment all you want. But at that point, I’d give Rylan Bannon and/or Luke Ritter a shot.
Baty recovered… three HR last two days
He’s too good for AAA but not good enough yet for MLB, very frustrating
Looks that way at the moment. Let’s see what happens next.
Fun fact: Stewart and Gamel went to rival high schools in Jacksonville.
Ben Gamel…..now who’s dumpster diving
Lmao
If you can’t suggest a more viable alternative then you’re just trolling
Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And probably a Met fan too,
He started a game but oh what a shame,
He wound up in the loo.