A knee injury is sending New York Mets right fielder Starling Marte on an extended stay on the injured list.
Marte had previously been hit with knee pain on the 5th of this month, but the Sunday game against the Chicago Cubs pushed him to leave early. His knee was tested by doctors on Monday and placed on the ten-day injured list on Tuesday.
“We’ve been very careful with him, giving him a couple of days off,” continued Mendoza. “But it got to a point … that we needed to take care of it,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.
According to doctors, Marte’s suffering from a bone bruise in his right knee. MLB noted that Marte will be assessed again by doctors in two weeks. From there, the Mets will determine if he can resume activities. The Mets expect to lose Marte for a month at the earliest.
Starling Marte made his professional baseball debut in 2012 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Dominican baseball outfielder then moved to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, Oakland Athletics, and his current team the New York Mets.
Marte has now had eight trips to the injured list since 2016. His absence leaves the Mets with two outfielders Brandon Nimmo and Harrison Bader. The Mets called outfielder Ben Gamel as a temporary replacement. However, playing time is expected to increase for Tyrone Taylor and Jeff McNeil.
The Mets are also dealing with the continued suspension of Edwin Díaz. Diaz was found to have violated prohibitions on foreign substances and accepted the appeal on Tuesday.
“You hate to see it,” Mendoza said. “And as far as doing anything different, from day one, we’ve been very specific and very direct. You hate to see it. I obviously don’t want to get into the details of what we’re going to be doing moving forward, but the rules are the rules. Talking to Edwin, obviously, I got his back. I truly believe what he was telling us.”
It’s unknown when Diaz will resume baseball activities.
