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.
Elsewhere in the NL East…
- Speaking of the Nationals, Joel Sherman of the New York Post spoke to one team official who tells him that the Nats pursued Kenley Jansen, Mark Melancon and David Robertson “very aggressively” this offseason but weren’t able to close either free-agent deal or swing a trade with the White Sox. Sherman notes that it’s somewhat surprising to see an expected division contender neglect to address its most obvious need in the offseason and writes that the Nationals may have little choice but to go beyond their comfort zone in trade talks for Robertson or another available closing option this summer. Sherman lists Tampa Bay’s Alex Colome as a speculative option, while FanRag’s Jon Heyman suggests that the Rays’ Brad Boxberger or the Cardinals’ Trevor Rosenthal make sense as on-paper fits. (Though Rosenthal, of course, is throwing quite well this season and there’s no guarantee the Cardinals would even be willing to move him.) Beyond those two speculative fits, Heyman adds that as of the end of Spring Training, there’d been no recent talks with the ChiSox regarding Robertson.
- Marlins manager Don Mattingly created some degree of controversy when he elected to pull Wei-Yin Chen after the lefty had thrown seven no-hit innings yesterday, but Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reminds that Chen is pitching through a slight tear in his ulnar collateral ligament that was discovered last summer. The tear, however, isn’t something that has hindered Chen, the left-hander himself told the Miami media. “With the tear in the ligament, it doesn’t really heal,” Chen said through a translator. “It’s still there. It won’t heal. So I don’t really think about if it’ll get worse or not. I just think about with this, what treatment I should be getting.” Chen opted for a platelet-rich plasma injection and plenty of rest for his injury last summer, as the tear is not significant, Healey notes. Several pitchers have gone this route, with varying degrees of success. Healey lists Masahiro Tanaka as one prominent example and notes that Adam Wainwright pitched more than five years with a modest tear of his elbow ligament before undergoing Tommy John. (I’ll add that Ervin Santana also pitched through a partial UCL tear and never required surgery.) Mattingly flatly said that given Chen’s 2016 injury, he simply won’t consider letting Chen throw 130 pitches in a start.
hyraxwithaflamethrower
Nats have a funny idea of “aggressively”, considering the story at the time was they weren’t willing to part with any decent prospects or take on all of Robertson’s salary. Don’t know how they expected to get a deal done if they weren’t willing to give the Sox either of the things they wanted.
bollo
Nats stole Eaton. The rookies they gave up aren’t as good as the sox thought they’d be. But then again the sox front office is a group of failures. They haven’t produced anyone from their system that’s been successful in years.
thor would look better in red
I would have to say that Sale was pretty successful as well as Quintana and Anderson is starting to look like a stud. But, you are right three players in 5 years is probably the worst I can think of maybe the Padres have been worse but the Sox have not been good at all.
chesteraarthur
Kenny Williams is a failure, Rick Hahn seems like he’s a pretty smart dude who has a good idea of what he’s doing.
Their position player development has certainly been lacking in recent years. I’m not sure if that’s on the front office, player development, or luck. I guess you could argue that since the front office is in charge or hiring player development people that it’s their fault though.
hyraxwithaflamethrower
No idea what that has to do with my comment. I’m talking about the Robertson trade, not the Eaton one.
theruns
The 3 pitchers they got are all 22 years old, I highly doubt the Sox (or anybody) are judging them off of 2 or 3 April starts.
There are plenty of other teams who will take their chances on Giolito if they are ready to give up on him lol.
Dunning is a talented dude too, he’s a 1st round pick with legit stuff who has been fantastic in his first few SAL starts.(1 ER in his first 20 IP, with 26 K.)
lesterdnightfly
If the sample is too small to judge the 3 pitchers you cited, why is it large enough for you to drool over what Dunning has done?
bjd1207
Agressively means offering more money to Jansen then he eventually took, and similar offers for Melancon. By the time of the Robertson talk they had already dealt their top two pitching prospects, and all they said was Robles was off the table. Everyone else was fair game, though I understand if the Sox couldn’t find a package they liked from those. But the Nats def aggressively pursued mulitple options like the article says
hyraxwithaflamethrower
They may have pursued Melancon and Jansen aggressively, but as noted here: mlbtraderumors.com/2017/02/nationals-white-sox-sti…, they didn’t seem to be that aggressive in going after Robertson. When the Sox signed him, I thought his salary was very high, but after the contracts signed this offseason, it looks pretty fair, especially when you consider nearly half of his runs last season came in just two outings.
Toksoon
He was already under contract they tried to trade for him
mikeyank55
At great that Donnie shows such great leadership. Managing is far more than going every record while you squeeze the life out of a pitcher’s arm. Protecting your players shows true commitment to the team and I bet it will pay him back in spades.
Compare this action against what the genius running the Mets did under similar circumstances. “TC” left Johan Santana in for 135 pitches (best guess–no corrections needed as the number was absurd anyway) to complete a no hitter. It was the pinnacle in the pitcher’s comeback from years of rehab.
He was NEVER THE SAME AGAIN !
gocincy
And what did the Mets have to do with this story? Oh, nothing, they’re just your personal obsession. You need a sub-Reddit for this obsession.
metseventually 2
Totally.