- With an .095/.186/.127 batting line in 70 plate appearances, Mets infielder Jose Reyes has been among the majors’ worst players this year. Nevertheless, the Mets aren’t considering releasing the 33-year-old, according to Newsday’s Marc Carig, who casts doubt on the possibility of the team cutting him even if his performance doesn’t improve soon. Reyes makes a minimum salary and is a speedy switch-hitter who can play shortstop, all of which are facts that work in his favor, Carig writes. While the Mets have an elite shortstop prospect in Amed Rosario, who has slashed .355/.382/.353 in 55 PAs this season, a promotion for him isn’t imminent, sources told Carig. The Mets don’t want to rush either the 21-year-old Rosario or first base prospect Dominic Smith (also 21) to the majors.
Mets Rumors
Mets Injury Updates: Duda, Flores, Cespedes, Cabrera, d’Arnaud
The health issues have begun to pile up for the Mets, who just began their first series of the year against the division-rival Nationals. Manager Terry Collins spoke with reporters (including MLB.com’s Danny Knobler) before the game and provided updates on several players:
- First baseman Lucas Duda is heading to the DL after hyperextending his elbow in a collision at first base on Wednesday. It’s not known how long he’s expected to miss, but clearly the expectation is he needs at least a ten-day layoff. While the hot-hitting, left-handed slugger will be missed in the lineup, he’s actually a fairly easy player to replace for New York given the presence of three left-handed corner outfielders — including Jay Bruce, who’s playing at first again tonight.
- Also hitting the 10-day DL is infielder Wilmer Flores, who is currently in the hospital for treatment of an infection in his right knee. It’s not immediately clear what it’ll take to get him back in working order, but he’s expected to remain hospitalized through the weekend, per the report.
- Coming up to fill in for that pair are utilityman T.J. Rivera and lefty Sean Gilmartin. The latter is expected to function in a relief role, but could see a spot start. Jacob deGrom was unable to take the hill tonight after coming down with a stiff neck, but he’ll try again tomorrow. If the seemingly minor issue still proves problematic, then Gilmartin will step into the rotation briefly.
- While those two DL placements were the only ones required at this point, there are several other key players who are too banged up to play tonight. Yoenis Cespedes will need a few days off to rest his hamstring, though it’s surely a good sign that he’s being kept on the active roster. Likewise, a hammy issue is holding back shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, though he’s expected to be back in the lineup tomorrow. And backstop Travis d’Arnaud’s bruised wrist left him unable to throw well enough to suit up tonight, though it seems he too will be back in short order. While the club has a skeleton crew tonight, they’ll seek to get by without further roster shakeups for the time being.
Cespedes Set To Undergo MRI On Hamstring
Yoenis Cespedes exited tonight’s game with a hamstring injury that was heavily wrapped after the contest, as Newsday’s Marc Carig notes (all Twitter links). Mets manager Terry Collins expressed some concern over the injury, Carig notes. Cespedes told reporters that he felt a “shock” in his leg, though he added that the current injury doesn’t feel as bad as previous hamstring issues that have sidelined him for four and five days at a time in prior seasons. Cespedes will receive an MRI in the morning, and Carig notes that doctors currently expect an absence of two to three days. The Mets have no shortage of outfielders on hand to cover a brief absence for Cespedes, with Curtis Granderson, Michael Conforto, Jay Bruce and Juan Lagares all on the roster. Of course, none of those players comes with Cespedes’ upside at the plate, and his absence removes the Mets’ most potent right-handed bat from the lineup. And the fact that the Mets are slated to begin a three-game series with the division-rival Nationals this weekend, the timing of the injury is obviously poor.
Mets Activate Jeurys Familia From Restricted List
The Mets announced on Thursday that closer Jeurys Familia has been activated from the restricted list after serving his 15-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. The team also recalled catcher Kevin Plawecki from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned right-hander Rafael Montero and left-hander Sean Gilmartin to Vegas.
Familia, 27, will rejoin a Mets bullpen that currently ranks in the middle of the pack, league-wide, in terms of earned run average. Of course, that includes some problematic innings from Montero (seven earned runs, 6 2/3 frames), who was optioned out today upon Familia’s activation. While manager Terry Collins has said Familia will be eased back into the closer’s role, Addison Reed figures to see a few more save opportunities before Familia fully reclaims his previous role.
Familia was arrested back in early November after allegedly assaulting his wife, but the charges were dropped at his wife’s request the following month. As we saw last year in the suspensions of Aroldis Chapman and Jose Reyes, however, a lack of criminal charges is not necessarily an impediment to a suspension under the league’s still fairly new policy. Beyond his 15-game suspension (and the lost salary that accompanies that punishment — about $730K, in Familia’s case), the right-hander agreed to make a donation and speak to several rookie players on the matter. Familia also underwent extensive counseling sessions this offseason.
From a purely on-field vantage point, the return of Familia will be a boon to the Mets’ relief corps. Over the past three seasons, the hard-throwing righty has amassed 233 innings with a 2.20 ERA, 243 strikeouts and 70 unintentional walks. He led the National League with 51 saves in 2016, saved 43 games the year before and has led the Senior Circuit in games finished in each of the past two seasons (a combined 132 games).
Phillies Came Closest To Landing Jay Bruce Over The Winter
Though by all accounts he has done nothing but go about his business as a professional, outfielder Jay Bruce has had an eventful tenure with the Mets since arriving last summer via trade. While the club picked up his option last fall, it reportedly dangled him in trade talks once Yoenis Cespedes returned in free agency.
Among the teams that inquired about Bruce, it was the rebuilding Phillies who came closest to acquiring him over the recent offseason, Marc Carig of Newsday reports. It’s not known what got in the way of a deal, though perhaps New York wanted some kind of prospect return or Philadelphia wasn’t willing to take on his entire $13MM salary.
The pursuit of Bruce, who’ll be a free agent at year’s end, certainly fits within the Phillies’ recent operating philosophy of adding short-term veteran pieces to boost the club in the near term (and provide possible trade chips) without clogging up future balance sheets. The Phils ended up adding two such outfielders, Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders. Presumably, the club wouldn’t have signed the latter, who was not added until mid-January, had it managed to acquire Bruce.
Other organizations that at least expressed interest, Carig notes, were the Giants and Orioles. But clearly neither of those clubs was willing to push the envelope to add Bruce, who struggled to a .219/.294/.391 slash line over his 187 plate appearances with the Mets in 2016. In the end, the Mets held onto the slugger.
As it turns out, the lack of sufficient interest may have worked to the Mets’ advantage. Though the presence of Bruce on the roster along with Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto has continued to create something of a logjam, the 30-year-old Bruce is more than making up for that with a highly productive start to the year. Through 62 plate appearances, he’s hitting a robust .309/.387/.673 with six long balls.
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out over the course of the season. Bruce is a notoriously streaky hitter, though the Mets will be glad to ride things out for the time being. Conforto is clamoring for more playing time with a great start in limited action. And Granderson is scuffling quite a bit early, though of the three he’s the choice to line up in center field (where he could begin to cede time to Juan Lagares). Tough choices could be required if other roster needs arise, or if the team determines that Conforto needs to play more regularly, though it remains plausible to imagine all three players sticking with the Mets for the full season. And if Bruce is able to maintain anything like his current production, it’ll be interesting to see whether the organization considers a qualifying offer after the season.
Latest On David Wright
- In another corner of New York, the Mets are seeing some good signs from third baseman David Wright. As David Lennon of Newsday tweets. Wright was able to field balls and play catch today, though he hasn’t yet begun making throws from third base. The veteran is working back from a shoulder impingement (which was suffered as he recovered from a neck issue that arose while dealing with a serious back issue).
Mets Notes: Bruce, Reyes
- ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick interviewed Mets right fielder Jay Bruce about the slugger’s struggles following the 2016 trade that brought him to New York and the hot start he’s experienced in 2017. Bruce brushes off any previous suggestions that he “couldn’t handle” the move to the big city and the more imposing media market. Rather, he explains to Crasnick the difficulty he had being uprooted from his daily routine in Cincinnati. Bruce calls himself a “routine-oriented guy” and details that he stayed with six different teammates in addition to living out of hotels during his first few months with the Mets — all with his wife and infant son remaining behind in Ohio. “I understand how people come up with their thoughts,” Bruce tells Crasnick. “…I think it’s a pride thing with people from New York, and I get it. It’s an amazing city. It’s chewed a lot of people up and spit them out. That doesn’t even exist to me, though. This is the team I’m playing baseball for, with an incredible opportunity. I was just bad at baseball for a month.” As of this writing, Bruce is hitting a robust .275/.362/.529 with four homers in his final year before free agency.
- There’s more concern in the Mets organization surrounding Jose Reyes’ woeful start to the 2017 season than the team is publicly expressing, writes Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News. Reyes picked up a double in tonight’s loss to the Phils but is still hitting just .100/.182/.140 on the season. Reyes, Ackert notes, was brought back with the hope that he could solidify the leadoff spot and allow Curtis Granderson’s 30-homer bat to hit lower in the order, but Reyes has been dropped to the bottom third of the order due to his poor performance. Michael Conforto hit leadoff for the second time this season on Tuesday, and Granderson has been in the leadoff slot three times in the past five games as well.
Pitching Injury Notes: Graveman, Lugo, Tillman, Ross
Athletics right-hander Kendall Graveman has been placed on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to this past Saturday, due to a strained right shoulder, per a club announcement. Catcher Bruce Maxwell has been recalled from Triple-A to fill Graveman’s spot on the 25-man roster. While A’s fans are undoubtedly disheartened to see the 26-year-old Graveman land on the shelf, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that there are no indications that the injury is severe. Slusser notes that she’d be surprised to see Graveman miss more than one start, so it seems that Oakland is merely taking advantage of the shortened minimum stay on the DL to help keep the roster full while Graveman recovers.
A few more injury notes from around the game…
- Mets righty Seth Lugo is set to begin a throwing program after taking two weeks off, per The Record’s Matt Ehalt (Twitter link). Lugo, who is hoping to avoid surgery after being diagnosed with a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, will begin his program by throwing from 60 feet. Ehalt adds. Lugo and southpaw Steven Matz are both presently on the DL for the Mets, which has considerably thinned out the club’s rotation depth.
- Chris Tillman was able to make his first rehab start yesterday, appearing with the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate, as Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun reports. Though he says he is still having trouble getting his problematic shoulder loose, he says he’s “good to go” once he’s able to do so. Tillman suggested he is learning to deal with the constraints of the balky joint, though how that’ll work out at the game’s highest level is anyone’s guess. The righty sat in the upper eighties with his fastball yesterday, though he did top out at 91 — which is where he typically works. So long as he’s able to rebound from this first outing, Tillman will continue to increase his pitch count in further rehab starts.
- The back issues that have slowed the rehab progress of Rangers’ righty Tyson Ross are still hanging around, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports on Twitter. Since he has yet to return to the mound, it now seems that his early-May target to return to the majors will move back by at least a week or two. Ross had seemed to be nearing a full recovery from thoracic outlet surgery when the seemingly minor back issue cropped up.
Mets Promote Sean Gilmartin
- Miami’s opponent in that marathon game, the Mets, also dipped into their farm for an arm. New York announced that Sean Gilmartin will take a spot in the pen. Utilityman T.J. Rivera will be optioned for the time being, though he seems likely to return once the pitching staff gets back on its feet.
NL Notes: Arroyo, Gray, Gilmartin, Cards
Right-hander Bronson Arroyo is only two starts into his comeback attempt with the Reds, but the 40-year-old is seemingly giving himself a short leash to produce on the mound, writes Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Following an outing in which he surrendered five runs in six innings yesterday, Arroyo told reporters, “The next two times out, if I don’t see something a little bit crisper and able to keep us in the ballgame a little bit better, maybe you’re at a dead end street. I’m not sure.”
A bit more from around the Senior Circuit…
- Rockies right-hander Jon Gray left last night’s contest after aggravating a toe injury that bothered him in Spring Training, and MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes that Gray will be reevaluated this morning. The problematic toe is on Gray’s plant foot on the mound, and the Rockies want to be careful with the injury so he doesn’t alter his mechanics to compensate for the pain. Gray could miss a start with the injury, though to this point there’s been no talk of him becoming the latest in a long list of Rockies to land on the disabled list.
- The Mets are planning to promote southpaw Sean Gilmartin prior to tonight’s contest in order to add a fresh arm to their bullpen in the wake of last night’s 16-inning marathon game, per Betsy Helfand of the Las Vegas Review Journal (Twitter link). The Mets went through eight pitchers last night, including four relievers who threw two or more innings. As Helfand points out, Gilmartin and right-hander Erik Goeddel are essentially the only two viable options on New York’s 40-man roster, and Goeddel has been slowed of late by a groin injury. The Mets have long been touted for their rotation depth, but multiple injuries and the trade of Gabriel Ynoa to the Orioles has thinned out their upper-level options on the 40-man roster.
- ESPN’s Mark Saxon breaks down each element of the Cardinals’ struggles thus far in the 2017 campaign, noting that the team’s rotation and run production figure to be sound in the long run, but the bullpen and defense look far shakier. As Saxon observes, Alex Reyes’ injury now looks costlier than ever with the underperformance of the bullpen. Matt Adams continues to represent a clumsy fit for the Cardinals’ roster as well, with Saxon suggesting the team seek to trade him in exchange for a true fourth outfielder that can play all three positions. That may prove difficult, of course, as the team wasn’t able to drum up much of a market for Adams this offseason in a crowded market for players with similar skill sets.
