Reese Kaplan -- The Injury List Started Early This Spring

Let us take a look at the injuries currently facing the New York Mets. Some are serious, some are the result of action during the game itself, some are soreness from not having had regular competition for several months and some are simply bad luck.

While many people would think the obvious place to lead off would be lefty starting pitcher Jose Quintana, the Mets are actually fairly well off in the replacement options available to them. A stress fracture in the ribs is a long term healing process. Having suffered through multiple broken ribs in my lifetime, I well know that there is no bandage nor restraint of movement given to the recovering patient. 

When it is at its worst you are given control of your own morphine drip in the hospital, but we're talking here about a single minor fracture, not seven at one time as I experienced. Granted, I was not a professional athlete and the period of recovery really didn't prevent me from doing my paid job. Quintana is obviously embarrassed coming to a new team and finding out almost immediately that he will be out of action for an unspecified amount of time in recovery.

Now David Peterson was the most likely replacement for Quintana as he pitched competently and is also a left handed starter. Unfortunately he took a batted ball off his foot that led to a fairly big bruise and that will require him to stay off of it so as not to try to pitch too soon, altering his delivery and risking arm or abdominal injury. If the coaches allow the other pitchers to take their innings in place of Peterson as well, then he will be better able to recovery properly and relatively quickly. 

Of course, asking a guy who trains on a daily basis to sit and do nothing runs counter to his lifestyle, but hey, sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do.

Speaking of required rest making yourself well prepared to begin the 2023 season, that would bring us to Mr. Starling Marte. Any way you slice the 2022 season between multiple pitching injuries, non-existent offensive contribution from the catchers and a mostly season-long slump from Eduardo Escobar, but it was the loss of Marte that more than anything else pushed the Mets out of first place in September. 

He has had the broken finger to deal with, and then came groin surgery on both sides which also required a long interval of limited motion to hasten healing. Apparently it was the right move as he homered in his very first spring game and has publicly declared it's not that big a deal and others in the game have not had the surgery curtail their running. While it's likely he'll not be stealing bases in April, by the time May rolls around he should be back to the star quality player we saw during 2022.

The last injury making headlines for the Mets is DH/1B/OF Darin Ruf. He has had reported pain from arthritic impact on his right wrist. Given the poor showing he had in 2022, you would think it would be doubly important for him to cement his shaky status with the club and the timing of the injury was particularly bad. 

For the Mets the injury may be something of a blessing in disguise if rookie wannabes like Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty or Mark Vientos hit with authority this spring. Then there are fringier players like Tim Locastro whose defense and baserunning would be a significant improvement over the right handed answer to lefty DH Daniel Vogelbach's value being measured exclusively by what he does with his bat. 

The Mets have the choice of cutting him or disabling him. The latter approach would allow them to keep him out of the picture for quite some time, then have him do a minor league rehab stint before seeing how the substitutes are faring in April.

A last minute addition to this recovering group is new left handed reliever Brooks Raley who was replaced on the Team USA squad by former Met Aaron Loup due to an unspecified injury.  Since details as of today are not forthcoming no one can predict how serious or minor the issue is, but it's likely something preventing his ability to pitch for the next few weeks and thus must go onto the list of fragility for the Mets roster.

Overall, for a squad of 40 men on the roster and quite a few additional non-roster invitees manning the Port St. Lucie scorecard, five injuries are a relatively small number, particularly if you dismiss both Peterson and Marte as having minor types of issues. Quintana is a great unknown as rib injuries can take 6-8 weeks before you begin normal activity again. 

The hidden one -- Darin Ruf -- may help make his roster status more manageable if he indeed does not take the bus over to Miami for Opening Day on March 30th. The big mystery is Raley and if he might need a stint on the IL then the Mets will be looking for someone like Joey Lucchesi to transition to the pen to take his place temporarily.