The Mets announced that infielder/outfielder Jared Young has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 13th, due to a left meniscus tear. Outfielder MJ Melendez has been recalled to take his place on the roster. Young will undergo surgery, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. The team has not announced an expected recovery timeline.
It’s an unfortunate blow for both Young and the Mets. For Young personally, he was getting some big league time and making the most of it. He has usually hit well in the minors but came into this season as a 30-year-old with just 116 big league plate appearances. Injuries to Mike Tauchman, Juan Soto and Jorge Polanco opened up some playing time with the Mets this year. Young stepped up to take 23 plate appearances and produced a .350/.391/.450 line.
Unfortunately, his season will now be on pause for a while. Meniscus surgeries usually require a couple of months of recovery, give or take. For instance, Tauchman is also out due to meniscus surgery and his recovery will reportedly take six weeks.
Young’s path to playing time in the future will depend upon what else happens on the roster. Soto’s calf strain isn’t considered overly serious, so he’ll likely be back in the outfield before Young is healthy. Polanco’s Achilles injury has kept him primarily in the designated hitter slot, which has allowed Mark Vientos and Young to pick up some start at first base.
For now, Melendez comes up and will be making his Mets debut as soon as he gets in a game. A longtime member of the Royals, he signed a big league deal with the Mets in the offseason but has been on optional assignment so far this year. He has a subpar .216/.286/.431 line at Triple-A, which isn’t too far off his major league career line of .215/.297/.388.
The Mets will likely utilize a rotation of Carson Benge, Brett Baty, Luis Robert Jr., Tommy Pham, Tyrone Taylor and Melendez in the outfield, while Vientos might get more starts at first base. They don’t really have a clear depth infielder on the bench but Baty has experience at second and third, while third baseman Bo Bichette appears to be the emergency shortstop behind Francisco Lindor.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Oy. I was wondering what happened to Melendez. And I guess why Young wasn’t in the lineup.
Ow?
It’s very possible this team is legitimately cursed…
It certainly feels that way sometimes!
The Stern era needs to end. Why is Melendez up over others such as Morabito? We now have Pham and Melendez on the team and you know they will play regularly since Mendoza is manager
Pretty simple, Roberts is occupying pretty much every day, Benge is still going to be in the lineup majority of the time while he is in the majors. Polanco is the DH until he is healthy. Polanco at DH Vientos will pretty much be your 1B or maybe swap out with Baty depending on matchup. This basically leaves 1 OF spot open to rotate Baty, Pham, Taylor and now Melendez.
Why bring up the young kid to take at bats for what is probably worth 1 game a week in the majors instead of everyday in AAA. If Benge went down then bring up Morabito.
NYMET You’re such a complainer
What about the Luis Robert acquisition? Some of you fanboys just can’t ever be happy no matter what.
i give him credit for luis robert, but the nimmo simien trade kind of undid that credit. All over the place that was a loss, you had way too many 2B 3B types on the roster much cheaper and i believe were out of options and while the defense is amazing with simien his bat has been on decline and he is older so hard to see that trend change.
They also sent out one money and one of their more productive hitters in a position they really had no depth ready to step in. I understand the hope with Benge and/or Williams at the time and i was on that train too but ended up with basically 3 2b types in Simien Polanco and Bichette and no corner outfielders and paying a ton more for it. I hope i have to eat crow and all 4 pieces involved work out.
Nimmo-Seimien is a good trade. Nimmo has *five* years left on his contract. Nimmo’s BABIP is almost .400 and Semien’s is like .230. It’ll even out more as the season goes on. Semien’s defense has also been great.
Amen 🙏
Simien’s bat i doubt comes back. based on his last few years he is trending down and at best he will be slightly below average hitter. i think nimmo hovers around 260 25hr 80 rbi probably aound a 750 ops with some sorely needed pop. Simien maybe 225 12 60 with ops around 650 but probably less as this isnt far off last year but i think bigger decline.
just rough math
this season simien is owed 26M and nimmo is 20 not including the extra 2m signing the mets still have to pay.
Mets are throwing in 5M extra so its 31M and 15M
tax the difference and you now are basically paying simien close to 50M for this year. Half what nimmo is owed in total. assuming no other tax simien is owed 46 for the next 2 years bringin his mets total to around 95 M for the 3 years. Nimmo is owed 100M for those 5 years.
You could have cut him and saved money if years was the issue. Now you have basically 4 or 5 2B and with soto out your left with an inconsistent CF and …. question marks? Heck they have a guy that wasnt even on a minor league team to start the season starting. I would have kept nimmo signed bichette put him at 2nd baty at third and invest that extra cash into keeping diaz .. maybe offer 3 /72 or 75 Weaver William Diaz for your 7 8 9 is not too shabby.
NYMETSHEA…. What color is the sun on your planet? In what world does a generic prospect whose ceiling – repeat: c e i l i n g – is projected to be 4th OF come up after only 13 games in AAA and succeed? It doesn’t happen. And most of them never reach their ceilings, or only do five years into their careers for a couple of years before regeressing again.
Are you not seeing what’s been happening with Vientos, Baty, and Mauricio? Years of back and forth and not one of them is a lock to hold down a major league spot. Alvarez, the highest rated of that bunch by far is still having his ebbs and flows and nowhere near meeting his projections.