Mets infielder Jorge Polanco was not in the lineup on Thursday as he continues to deal with an Achilles injury. New York has not ruled out an IL stint for the veteran, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters, including Will Sammon of The Athletic.
Polanco was brought in to be the club’s primary first baseman after Pete Alonso signed with the Orioles. He started the first two games of the season at the position, but has been limited to DH since then. Polanco said the pain in his Achilles “comes and goes,” relayed by Chelsea Janes of SNY. His absence on Thursday ended a streak of four straight starts.
Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, and Jared Young have all spent time at first base this season. The Juan Soto injury opened up right field reps for Baty, so Vientos has taken over regular work at the cold corner recently. The former prospect has made the most of the increased playing time, slashing .323/.353/.484 across 34 plate appearances. Baty hasn’t done a ton with his chances, but the injuries have allowed the Mets to get a longer look at both players.
While the defensive lineup has shifted around plenty, Mendoza does not plan to adjust the pitching rotation, at least not yet. The skipper was asked specifically about David Peterson after the lefty allowed five earned runs for the second straight start. “As I’m sitting here right now, no,” Mendoza said regarding a pitching staff change, relayed by Janes.
The Diamondbacks jumped all over Peterson on Wednesday, scoring once in the first inning and four more times in the second inning. Peterson settled in over his final three frames, but the Mets’ offense managed just two runs against Ryne Nelson and company. The southpaw’s ERA sits over 6.00 through 14 2/3 innings. It’s a continuation of Peterson’s second-half swoon in 2025. After earning an All-Star selection, Peterson stumbled to a 7.74 ERA over 10 starts from August on.
The Mets don’t have an obvious replacement lined up to take over Peterson’s spot. Sean Manaea opened the year in the bullpen after working primarily as a starter the past two years. His fastball remains under 90 mph, continuing a concerning trend from the spring. Mendoza said the club does not plan to add Manaea back to the rotation right now.
As Janes pointed out, pitching prospects Christian Scott and Jonah Tong have struggled to begin the minor league season. Scott’s been tagged for six earned runs over 8 1/3 innings through two Triple-A starts. The strikeouts have been there for Tong, but he has an ERA over 5.00 across three outings with Syracuse.
On the positive side, left-hander A.J. Minter tossed a scoreless frame at Single-A on Thursday. The reliever is working his way back from a lat injury. He underwent surgery in May and began the 2026 campaign on the injured list. The outing with St. Lucie was his first game action in nearly a year.
Early estimates had Minter returning in May, but he could be back with the Mets before the end of the month. “We started the clock, the rehab process now,” Mendoza told reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “It’ll be one of those where if we have to use every single day, we will. But the fact that he’s in real competition is a good sign.”
Minter is in the final season of a two-year, $22MM deal. He was off to a tremendous start in 2025 before the injury. The lefty gave up a pair of runs against the Marlins in his second appearance, then ripped off 11 straight scoreless outings. Minter pushed his strikeout rate to 31.8%, his best mark since 2022.
The Mets have relied on Brooks Raley and Richard Lovelady as their left-handed bullpen options with Minter out. Raley is tied for the club lead with two holds. He’s punched out seven hitters in five appearances. Lovelady has been scored upon in three of his five games.
Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images
Glad to see Minter is up and moving
Where’s that guy who was arguing with everyone in the comments about what a great signing Polanco was for the Mets? If he’s hurt, DL him until he’s not…he’s certainly not helping the team with a .564 OPS.
Throughout the winter I kept saying that Polanco would go back to his IL ways after getting paid. It looks like he’s headed there now. I like Stearns but he should have passed on Polanco.
April 10th lol
I’m just happy for Mark Veintos. Provided he’s hitting I thought he was the natural choice for first base. With this front office will probably end up using him as a pinch hitter.
Vientos performed so poorly last year that they couldn’t rely on him for this year and had to get someone else. It’s great that he’s doing so well, hope he keeps it up.
Most of last year, not all. He started hitting solidly in mid-July and very well in August. The problem was that he swooned again in Sept. If he’d kept hitting that month, the narrative on him would’ve been entirely different based on his post-All-star break numbers. But, this is NY. We create narratives too easily here, treat generalities like absolutes and narratives as fact.
Polanco was a terrible signing to begin with. Manaea was predictable based on his track record. Skubal better be the target next year if they want to compete with the Dodgers. For now they can barely compete with the East. DS needs to do away with his Milwaukee mentality and use the tools and resources ($$$) he has available.
“Was a terroble signing to begin with…Milwaukee mentality..use the tools”…..Did you think DS was going to negotiate the biggest deal in MLB history(Soto)every single year?..
Every player who doesn’t work out immediately is a “terrible signing” with benefit of hindsight. The problem DS has, is he’s got to make these decisions beforehand, with no benefit of hindsight like you’re using.
GTFO mlbfan… logic and reason is not welcomed here.
Mlb fan: on the button. Some people just habitually bash everyone.
Metsfan3112: I’ve been told I have between 5 and 8 working brains cells and I’m curious who you think has pooped the bed with the glove to start the season.
Metsfan3112: I admit to not watching every inning of every game. You defeat your own argument when you state that Polanco of has played all of two games at first. As in two.
I saw Baty not track down that ball that hit the wall the other day. It would’ve been a great play, not a routine one. About Bichette, we knew it would take some time and he was never going to replace Lindor at short. So, I don’t see how you’ve made the case that Stearns isn’t good at what he does.
Padam: his payroll is too low for you?
David Stearns bottom feeding isn’t working out. Severe lack of power on this team without Alonso
Alonso has 1 home run!
To go along with 15 Ks in 48 ABs. A 66 OPS and a .154 average with runners in scoring position.
The chef: prob trying too hard. Hell get his 30-40 hrs and at least 90 rbi.
Unlikely he’ll hit 30.
I also predict an OPS lower than .750
and avg barely better than the Mendoza
“Hell get his”..Pete A. seems like a really nice, cool down-to-earth guy, but is also a one dimensional dinosaur from a completely different age of baseball.
@Fgh:
Polanco OPS+ – 65
Alonso OPS+ – 66
Anyone wanting Alonso and his $150 million contract back is crazy. If Polanco is bad, oh well. He’ll have only one year left on his contract. Mets also have Jacob Reimer and Ryan Clifford in the minors and both could be ready by next year, or perhaps later this year. Alonso leaving will ultimately prove to be a good thing.
Agree with your primary point that Polanco’s contract – dollars and length – don’t handicap this team’s ability to do other things, while Alonso’s would at some point. But let’s not jump the gun on the prospects. Both are off to poor starts. Even of they reach the majors next year, they’re highly unlikely to succeed and stick in the majors on their first go ’round. Most good prospects don’t, the extremely elite ones do.
“Both are off to poor starts.”
It’s been a week. Let’s not swing the other way and discount their potential.
You’re missing the point. The point is that prospects seldom come up, hold a job and stay up. Suggesting they could be ready by next year is almost wildly optimistc, even somewhat unrealistic.
Mr. Wright: there IS An obvious choice to replace peterson, it’s manea. He’s been decent in long relief. Repeating the line about his decreased velocity is boring and performance matters more. Also, since you gave a rundown of Mets pitching, You might’ve mentioned that Luis garcia has stunk it up and needs to go.
Agreed, Joel. Can just flip Manaea and Peterson around.
Also totally agree on Garcia. Maybe bring Carl Edwards or Austin Warren up to take his place. Can’t wait until Minter is back as Lovelady can be gone as well. Ryan Lambert, Jonathan Pintaro, Felipe De La Cruz maybe later in the year as call-ups.
De La Cruz is nowhere right now. He’s been assigned to developmental camp. Lambert needs more seasoning. Edwards and Pintaro are just roster churn candidates.
Do you really believe that Manaea’s sub-90 mph fastball would last more than 3 innings in today’s game? If he moves into a regular starting role, the analytics people will figure him out quickly and teams will likely light him up in even less than three IP.
Do you live to argue or something? I literally just listed potential names and you’re bursting in to overanalyze. Lambert, Pintaro, and de la Cruz exist as “maybe later in the year as call-ups”. This is a fact. No reason to be contrarian.
I’m not being a contrarian. But even if they got called up, it would most, most likely be as roster churn, not as an actual solution to anything. They’re so heavily unlikely to be relevant that they don’t even warrant a mention. So why list them? Unless you think that they are actually viable. In which case, I not only disagree, but am perplexed by the notion.
If you’re just going to throw out names simply because they are in the system and on the 40-man, why not throw in Alex Carillo? Not to mention Joey Gerber, who is more likely to be useful than any of those guys. Or Dylan Ross, who might have the highest ceiling.
It’s either the manager or the team is vexed. When pitching succeeds , hitting fails and when hitting succeeds, the pitching fails. It’s a flawed roster; not due to lack of trying.
I think Mendoza is lousy but I’m not sure he does anything on his own. He’s a sock puppet for the front office.
Manaea is maimed and refusing the surgery he needs.
Peterson is predictably petrified in his walk season.
The mets don’t need a pitching coach: they need a shrink
Agree: You are very confident in your opinions. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you interpreted Manea’s imaging tests yourself and speak to Peterson often. “Maimed”! “Petrified”! Strong stuff.
What’s the matter Joely –
You don’t like alliteration? Or playful pontificating?
Agree: No, I just don’t like people who pretend to know what they don’t. Often it’s people who lack expertise in any field who make believe they’re experts in most everything. In your case, it’s sports medicine and psychology.
Let’s be real. No team is going to displace a veteran SP in April after just two starts. As for who might replace him, your statement, “Christian Scott….. have struggled to begin the minor league season. Scott’s been tagged for six earned runs over 8 1/3 innings through two Triple-A starts.” is a bogus overstatement/ misinterpretation.
All of those 6 runs came in his first start. His second start something of a gem: 5 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. Overall, just 1 walk and 7 hits against 12 Ks in 8.1 IP. 2 of those hits happened to be HRs.
I realize that as writers, you cannot possibly follow every team as closely as the local fans do. But the least you can do is glance at the game logs rather than jumping to a conclusion based solely on stats. Especially this early in the season when those game logs are quite short, and the tiny sample sizes are sometimes skewed significantly by one bad game. It is simply the responsible way to do it.
Agreed, geofft. Scott looked great against Buffalo. I’ll also add that Tong did as well. HBP the first batter, HR to the second batter. After that, 5 innings, 0 hits, 7 Ks, and a walk. Wenninger looked great in the early game, too. Mets will have options as the season progresses.
Optionable high upside options! Though I’d imagine they would want Wennimger’s clock to start next year. The offense is the problem right now and it’s a long season. I’d prefer they win throughout the year but Soto missing is a huge hole to fill with Polanco as well. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
Peterson is trash but Mendoza will continue to manage this team into the ground and roll him out there until inevitably Mendoza is fired. Unfortunately it’ll take an extra year or two to realize Stearns misses on every signing he makes and every one he doesn’t until he gets fired.
So Peterson is a Stearns signing?