Mets infielder Nick Madrigal has been diagnosed with a fracture in his left shoulder after undergoing an MRI, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). He’ll be out “for a long time,” per Mendoza, though a formal timeline isn’t yet established. Madrigal is headed for a CT scan for further evaluation. Mendoza also revealed that left-hander Sean Manaea has a right oblique strain that will shut him down for the next couple weeks, likely ticketing him for the injured list to begin the season (via Newsday’s Tim Healey).
Madrigal’s injury occurred while playing shortstop during yesterday’s spring contest against the Nationals. The former top prospect charged a grounder that kicked off the mound, making a barehanded play and falling to the ground as he threw to first base (video link via MLB.com). Commentary noted that Madrigal headed straight for the dugout upon getting up, so it’s clear he knew something was amiss right away. He was originally diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder, but imaging revealed the fracture that will shelve him for a considerable period.
The Mets inked Madrigal to a split major league contract that paid him at a $1.35MM rate in the majors. The former No. 4 overall pick has a minor league option remaining and might’ve been bound for Triple-A to begin the year, but he’ll presumably head to the major league 60-day IL whenever the Mets next need a roster spot instead. He wasn’t expected to have a starting role, with Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil lined up in the middle infield and Mark Vientos at third base, but a strong camp would likely have put Madrigal in line for a bench role.
Instead, the Mets will presumably tap into their upper-minors depth. Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña have all drawn top-100 fanfare at various points in recent seasons. Baty isn’t an option to back up at shortstop, however, and Mauricio is still on the mend from the ACL tear that cost him the entire 2024 season. He’s not expected to play in spring games until mid-March. Acuña, who made his big league debut late last year, seems the likeliest in-house candidate to step into Madrigal’s spot.
It’s possible that the long-term nature of the injury could prompt the Mets to look outside the organization, where fan and clubhouse favorite Jose Iglesias remains unsigned. The Mets all but announced they were moving on from Iglesias a couple weeks back, with president of baseball operations David Stearns noting a lack of roster flexibility at the time.
Signing Iglesias would give the Mets a bench full of players who cannot be optioned to Triple-A. Catcher Luis Torrens and outfielder Tyrone Taylor have both exhausted their slate of minor league options, while Starling Marte can’t be optioned without his consent — as is his right as a player with five-plus years of major league service time. Iglesias would be in that same boat. In the event of an Iglesias signing, the only position player on the Mets’ roster who could be optioned would be Francisco Alvarez, who’s obviously not at risk of being sent down.
The loss of Manaea, meanwhile, further thins out a rotation that will see Frankie Montas shelved by a lat strain to begin the season. That takes two members out of the Opening Day rotation, which now likely includes a combination of Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Paul Blackburn, Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill. It’s not a formidable group, with health and workload questions permeating the entire staff.
That said, the Mets weren’t planning to add another starter after losing Montas to a longer-term injury than the one Manaea currently faces. Montas will likely be sidelined into mid-May at the earliest. Manaea could very plausibly return in April if he rehabs the oblique issue without any setbacks. The immediate outcry among many Mets fans on social media was to use the Manaea injury as the impetus to re-sign Jose Quintana, but Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that the Mets are still planning to stick with in-house options.
On the one hand, it’s sensible enough that a short-term Manaea absence won’t prompt what would surely be an eight-figure expenditure after factoring in luxury taxes. Signing Quintana, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn or another veteran hurler for the full season when Manaea could miss as few as three to four starts in April could be construed as an overreaction.
On the other, the Mets quite arguably didn’t do enough with their rotation this winter in the first place. Senga pitched in one game last year due to injuries. Montas’ 2023 was wiped out by shoulder surgery, and he posted a 4.84 ERA over 150 innings in last year’s return. Holmes is converting to the rotation after six years pitching exclusively as a reliever. Canning was non-tendered and has a 4.96 ERA over his past three seasons. Blackburn is a fourth/fifth starter who was limited to 75 innings by a spinal injury last year. The rotation lacks certainty even when it’s at full strength — and the Mets are a ways off from full strength as things stand.
Mets better get a starter cause they spent alot on Soto and no pitching. Manaea is a risk.
The Mets has their chance to get a starter. Burnes, Snell, etc. They decided to go with Holmes and Montas.
Issue with getting Soto is he takes up alot. Now they need to trade for Cease . No way they can win with that staff. If Senga gets hurt they really are screwed
Yeah, Soto is not 500 million better than everyone else. That’s crazy and it’s the owners fault, especially LA’s, for setting that ridiculous precident.
what would the Mets offer for Cease? AJ Preller will want the moon and since Padres are competing for playoffs in 2025, a load of prospects won’t cut it.
By precedent, did you mean winning a World Series?
Regardless, there’s no reason the Mets need to fall back on spending too much arguments when their owner is Steve Cohen.
At this point, I think the Padres would need to be bowled over by an insane offer to deal Cease to the mets.
As it stands now, with the Mets rotation issues, and the Padres having strengthened their rotation, I would be surprised if the Padres don’t outplay the Mets to the deadline.
With any trade, you’re basically asking the Padres to punt a contending year, and strengthening a team that you’re competing with for a wild card spot.
How did the Mets have a chance? Snell isn’t picking Mets over Dodgers and Burnes really did not want to play on the East Coast unless he was severely over paid both bad options.
Burnes specifically wanted to go to AZ. They didn’t even pursue him, he had his agent call them. And he turned down better offers to go there. I agreed with not pursuing Snell – who has had as many down years as up ones – for those years and that price.
If you want to make a sensible argument, try Flaherty.
Snell’s “down years” were still #2 SP-worthy. His worst ERA result was 4.29 and every peripheral suggested he had terrible luck that year (3.04 xERA, 3.32 FIP, 3.31 xFIP, 3.36 BB/9, 12.36 K/9). He’s only had two other seasons with a 4+ ERA and they were 4.04 and 4.20 seasons. Since his first full season in 2018, the only year he has had less than 2 fWAR was the shortened 2020 season. I think talk of “down years” is a little misleading.
A logical question would be “what do you expect from a #2 pitcher?” While he has two Cy Youngs to his credit, Snell is not always that reliable in terms of both health and production as a pitcher. If you remove his two Cy Young seasons, the other seven seasons of his career produced a rough ERA+ of 108 with a 3.74 ERA. Is that a #2 starter? It’s not out unrealistic to state you get those kind of numbers from Snell for the majority of his contract where he’s getting paid like a #2 but producing like a #4 . Also, don’t forget to factor in that he missed 25-30% of his starts in those non-Cy seasons. If you sign Snell, have a backup plan in place because he rarely avoids the IL.
@misterb
I don’t how the Dodgers FO gets along without you.
That’s why Heaney signing for 5mil was surprising. SPs ideally want to be in camp asap to be ready for opening series (or close), but guys like Quintana and their agents know arms will drop like flies in ST to hold out for at least 10-12mil. Desperation can shift quick from the serviceable leftover FA starters to clubs getting too cute trying to get them for a few mil.
They could trade for Fedde, which would probably be a good move that aligns with their staff-building goals.
Not really. The Mets believe that they have two of three pitching prospects that are just about ready to help, and there will be lots of off-days and rainouts during the first month of the season. If all else fails they will spend the prospect capital to bring in a starter. They’ll be fine.
GET CEASE
what ML-ready players would fill needs for Padres? Pads might need a C and LF and maybe another 1b/DH, but that’s it. If they trade Cease they need an ace-type to replace him. AJ Preller will want an overpay and since Padres are competing for playoffs in 2025, competing with the Mets, a bunch of prospects won’t cut it.
100% agree with you @brew.
Mets would need to give the Padres a haul for Ceaese but also ML ready pitcher and players.
Not sure the Mets have A)enough and B) what the Padres are asking for.
Still, with Preller, Cease is available but only at the right price.
I do not think you can just get Cease. First, the Padres have to be willing to make a deal. Second, he is going to cost allot.. Desperation is expensive and the Padres will make the Mets pay more than they ever would had they attempted a deal two months ago.
Im not so sure Cease was every truly available, unless someone was going to put an insane package together I dont know if that was ever going to happen. Reports almost every say said Padres budget cuts all offseason, and what happened at the end of the day….they added. So did the philosophy change mid offseason…maybe? SD window to win is now, not sure trading away one of the games top pitchers helps them. I cant envision any return replacing that they lost in the short term.
Kyle Gibson?
Good thing mets have pitching depth with blackburn, megill, canning. And holmes will be fine, i mean he hasnt started a game in what, a decade? Senga’s fine too, he was only out entire 2024 season. Manea & montas are out, big deal, mets only invested combined $109mil (and passed on a bunch of other quality arms). Dont worry bout a thing. Mets got this in the bag. Dodgers are TOAST
Now excuse me while i vomit
Stearns masterclass. Quintana on line 1.
Just say no. Old man Quintana is an injury waiting to happen again. Remember 2023 out of the gate. He didn’t get any younger.
Someone has to pitch. There were major question marks prior to this anyways. Now 40% of the starting pitching is going to be on the shelf until April in the best case scenario, Senga coming off a year long injury and Holmes hasnt started games since 2018. How much $$ does cohen want to shell out. Going to have to get at least one stop gap arm. If they stay put the bullpen will be taxed by the all star game.
Bring back noah syndergard. And matt harvey. And bartolo colon. And johan santana.
There. Fixed the entire rotation. You’re welcome
The Dark Knight Rises.
Let’s take a breath. Yes, someone has to pitch. And the Mets still have 6 arms on the 40 man roster who are capable of doing that, 7 if you count Blackburn. The minor league depth options are, admittedly, underwhelming, or even concerning. But by the time they cycle through all of those arms and need more, it is possible that a prospect might be able to be used as a stop gap, or one of the injured pitchers is ready to come back.
@geoff
i appreciate your optimism. i rly do. its cute. but no matter what spin you put on this, losing 2 arms they just signed to multi yr deals, without throwing a single pitch yet, is, undoubtedly, an absolute disaster. one that could have been avoided. but stearns helped mets reach nlcs, so its frowned upon and basically forbidden to question his moves or his thought process. maybe he catches lighting in a bottle twice. or maybe these signings or lack of signings will blow up. they are alredy are blowing up. and its only ST day 2.
Stop being a dk and don’t put words in my mouth. I never said this was a good staff or situation.
I simply meant to correct the notion that there aren’t enough arms, and that we can take a breath and wait a day or three to see what the remaining pitchers and prospects look like before panicking.
40% and i have no faith in the last 20% of the pitching roster. Blackburn off a major injury, Canning is awful, and how many mediocre starts do we need to move on from McGIll? Sign Quintana and use a 6 man rotation when everyone is back. More importantly once that happens use Canning and McGill in a trade – I bet you could get a whole bucket of balls and maybe couple of hot dogs back for them.
Agreed for sure – and the replacements are not good. Canning? seriously? not for a good team. McGill? shouldn’t we be tired of his rollercoaster rides from awful to occasionally being ok (at best); Blackburn? off a significant injury? really?
Probably means a Gibson type stop gap
I think they need both a stop gap AND a mid to top of the rotation starter.
Fedde is available.
Now they arguably need 2. Cease might not even be available anymore unless NY allows SD to fleece em. Alcantara maybe? There’s always Gibson, Quintana or Turnbull if they’re looking for someone to hold down the fort for awhile. Or, dare I say Bauer?! That’s a good place for second chances considering half their fans have probably dabbled in prostitution one way or the other, lol. Jk, jk.
baur is under contract in japan with the bay stars,if he violated the contract it would cost him millions in a law suit.besides the mets would not want him and i dont blame them.
Could trade for fedde. Or matz or miklaus. The last 2 would cost literally nothing but their salary most likely
Mikolas has a NTC so I doubt he moves honestly. Matz and Fedde could both be moved and prospect capitol might not be much if all of Matz salary is taken on. Fedde isn’t bad though, and if STL isn’t hurting for $$$ as much as has been described they would be better off holding on to see how the division shakes out and cash in chips in July if truly out of the picture.
@bighiggy Matz, for one, would add nothing to these Mets. Tidwell alone projects to be better in 2025 if and when he pitches in MLB.
As for Mikolas, he’s 36 and coming off a 5.35 ERA season and makes $18m this year. The Mets would be better off with Quintana and for half the price.
What the Mets need to do is retrench, go in a slightly different direction, and sign a competent starter capable of taking a regular turn in the rotation. One of the ways Stearns erred this offseason is by using marginal talents in the #5 and 6 spots in the rotation, who also don’t have options remaining. By signing Quintana they may have to eventually DFA one of Canning or Blackburn, but who cares? Deal them for salary or cut them, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing to protect there. Or sign Quintana and deal one of the two immediately for salary before he implodes.
Stearns has to accept that, otherwise, the Mets will probably begin 2025 with a rotation of….
Senga
Holmes (a reliever is now their #2)
Peterson
Canning (no options, 5.18 ERA)
Blackburn (no options, 4.66 ERA)
They can squeak by with a “5 Days Rest” rotation (it’s that, not a ‘6-man rotation) using 5 starters throughout April with just a bullpen game or spot start on April 18th.
But that assumes all those starters are healthy and effective. Hoping you get those two features just from Blackburn and Canning is already extremely optimistic—and you can’t send them down if they’re ineffective, you can only DFA them.
Do the Mets think Tidwell, Sproat, and Hamel can give them roughly league average performance? Iirc they’re the only Mets SP in their farm that are among their top 20 prospects and who might be ready to pitch in MLB near the start of the 2025 season in 2025—and only Sproat profiles to an average or better SP in the majors. Do they really want to give away a year or service time here?
Having two injuries to starters also doesn’t mean you’re not going to suffer more injuries. The “Law of Averages” doesn’t exist as more than an expensive delusion among bad gamblers. Senga is just as likely to miss time as he was last week. The Mets need another starter. They needed another starter a month ago. They shouldn’t wait.
Don’t understand how the Mets give Soto the biggest bag ever but then sign Montas and Holmes to be your #4,#5.
Lindor isn’t getting younger.
Even worse is that they signed those two to be their #3 and #4.
Senga is #1, Manaea is #2, Peterson #3, Montas #4, and Holmes #5?
Probably because they signed those guys before Soto? I mean really the people complaining Soto is overpaid wanted Mets to overpay again for high end pitchers how does that make sense? If they can’t last a month without Montas and or Manaea to start the season they have bigger problems anyways.
I still want to see a batting order that includes Nimmo as clean-up.
Could someone please explain to me how a left-handed pitcher gets a RIGHT oblique strain?
Same side strain…sure but opposite side…lifting or bands I guess…really???
Thank God it wasn’t a hang nail.
2 down 3 to go.
The Yankee game got delayed (due to forecast rain) so you can always count on LOLmets to brighten your Monday.
Putting others down to feel better about yourself is a sign of low self-confidence
Mets gonna Met…
Crook Cohen got played again….LMFAO
They went to the NLCS last year. I’m no Met fan, but we can stop acting like they’re an incompetent franchise like the Rockies or Pirates.
The Dodgers, Mets and Yankees should be in the playoffs every year with top payrolls. The Rockies and Pirates have a tough time competing with them because of the revenue difference. It does not make them incompetent.
Yikes this take was horrible LouWhitakerHOF. Rockies have been a poorly run franchise for a while now and Pirates aren’t much better.
Yah, Rockies franchise estimated value around 1.475 billion and Monfort ownership estimated networth more than 700 million. They have a TV contract too. They don’t have the revenue or worth that a Dodgers or Yankees do, no, but the team could spend way more than they do.
How does the owner get played by a lat injury? Are you a bot?
Better get Fedde since he is available. They liked him last year but lost out to the White Sox because Stearns was being cheap. Maybe give up Gilbert?
Love seeing these drastic overreactions because a pitcher is going to miss a couple starts. Like it won’t happen to every team in baseball this year.
@ Mets Era
Exactly.
They need an innings eater that is good anyway. Fedde fits the bill.
Panic in the disco. Calm down. If you can’t survive the loss of Manaea for a month you don’t have much depth to start with. There are three off days in April. It’s not the end of the world. Sure another arm is always a good add, but it’s not imperative.
Quintana’s price just went up $5M — less than Cohen’s DoorDash order last night.
I didn’t see the play, but if he picked up the ball bare-handed and threw to first off balance, how did he land on his left shoulder?
fell forward awkwardly due to momentum
Don’t worry, Dollar Tree David signed Max Kranick, Griffin Canning and Connor Overton. We have “depth”. We also have Joe the hotdog guy and Jesus the janitor as “depth” as well. World Series here we come!
Kranick is a bp pitcher you dope
You’re not even a Met fan why are you here every post?
Trade a couple high end prospects to the Dodgers for one of their spare kid pitchers.
Yeah that ain’t happening.
Other than Eloy Jimenez is there anyone other than Madrigal that gets hurt more just doing baseball things—-like running and fielding balls???
Probably was a minor league piece/26th-27th man anyways, but man—way too predictable.
We’ll hear about the big talent guys who get injured a lot (like Trout) but the Madrigals we ought to have some sympathy for.
Totally agree, Mikenmn—-it’s just that there are no chronic back problems, no knee reconstructions—-just running to the base or fielding the ball wiht Nicky. It was just frustrating, as a Cub fan, to see it happen over and over and over again.
It never made sense to me that the Mets didn’t prioritize top line pitching this winter. Their rotation is all #3 type guys. No teams are looking at that rotation and feeling particularly nervous for a playoff series
We need to look into trading for Cease Castillo or Alcantara
The answer is easy! Stroman!!!!!!!!!!! Take him and his salary and the Mets will be in prime position to win many, many games. If the Mets let this opportunity slip, they will not make the playoffs.
Now, if the Mets take DJL, then they will move their chances into a play few teams can ever imagine. I encourage these moves by 5 PM today. Remember, haste is never waste when you are the Mets.
This made me laugh so hard. Thank you.
Thumbed.
But seriously,
get Stroman…
Bring back the two Joses: Quintana and Iglesias.
Sign OMG and Trevor Bauer, plus start the season with Sproat or Tidwell as the 5th sp whoever looks better in ST, start the season with Senga, Bauer, Peterson, Holmes and Sproat/Tidwell, not great but it’s better than trading too prospects for a rental.
Pervert Bauer is in Japan
Thank God idiot Stearn decided to go small or do nothing
Seriously the Mets are as stupid as it gets.
Who cares if the pitching market is bloated as it’s ever been? Who cares if they’re paying 110% taxes and these already bloated contacts are more than double?
Who cares if we just signed the biggest contract in the history of sportS?
Soto is signed until 2040 so CLEARLY 2025 is the *most* important of those 15 years and we should’ve went and got Burnes even tho he didn’t want to go anywhere but AZ.
We could’ve got Snell!!! Who cares if he only goes more than 129 innings once in the last 7 seasons and it would’ve cost us $130 million for 6 seasons, what a deal!
It’s so stupid to get an assortment of pitchers, hedging against injuries, when you can consolidate all that potential into 1 or 2 arms
Billionaires are known for throwing money away left and right and being really stupid about long-term investments, why isn’t Cohen like that?!? Doesn’t he know as much about finance as we do??
The person whose money it is cares. That’s all that matters. Unless you chipped in, there is no “we”.
It was a satirical comment based on the #geniuses here
Well, #genius, that contract isn’t getting any smaller, so are you saying they hanstrung themselves for 15 years or the money they didn’t have for pitching is magically replenishing itself next season or the 13 after?
Also, monsieur genius, what if said contract recipient gets hurt or declines drastically next season, but has a monster one this year and the Mets just miss the Series because of said pitching that they most likely should have invested better into. What if that becomes their only opportunity?
All of these are what if scenarios that could happen because the future isn’t black and white. So if you’re a contending team, you do need to play every season as if that’s a winnable season because who knows.
Probably the best thing that could have happened for Madrigal. Instead of getting minor league pay and hoping for an injury to get a chance, you get to rehab with full major league pay and maybe have a spot in a few months when you come back, if not with the Mets then with another team that has suffered an injury or two.
A 3rd place team BEFORE Manaea and Montas went down.
Should check in with the Yankees on Stroman. A veteran innings eater that would probably just be a salary dump. Maybe swap for McNeil.
The Mets are probably going to stay in house for now and hope to be over .500 at the end of April. They will be hoping Sproat is lights out in AAA and have him up in May. That’s a lot to hope for.
Maybe a trade of some low level prospects for Marcus Stroman (entire contract +option year) would be the mets best bet. Yankees get under the cohen tax. Storman would mostly be dumped off onto the mets who can afford if he pitches 140 innings this year to carry him next year.
Please take a lightly used Tyler Anderson. He’s going to give you innings