Mets’ Lagares out for season
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Juan Lagares and his Gold Glove are probably gone for the season.
The part-time New York Mets center fielder is expected to miss the rest of the year because of an injury to the big toe on his left foot. The team announced Friday that Lagares had an MRI and is tentatively scheduled for surgery next week to repair a complete tear of the big toe plantar plate, which is a thick supporting ligament.
“We got the news yesterday,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “That was really tough. I felt really bad for him. He was on a roll and playing great and now this happens.”
Lagares, a 2014 Gold Glove winner who was off to a fine start this season, got hurt Wednesday in the ninth inning of a lopsided loss to Toronto when he ran into the outfield wall to make a catch.
“It’s going to hurt us a little bit. We counted on Juan off the bench at times. He was probably in a situation where he was going to get to start playing a lot more than he had, with some guys out,” Callaway said.
It’s the latest blow to a sputtering Mets squad hit hard by injuries for the third consecutive year. Lagares joins left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, third baseman Todd Frazier and catchers Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki on the DL.
All five are right-handed hitters, leaving New York not only dangerously thin in the outfield but also particularly susceptible to left-handed pitching. Heading into Friday night’s game against Arizona, the Mets were batting .201 with a paltry .563 OPS against left-handers.
Frazier was eligible to come off the disabled list Friday but is day to day with his strained left hamstring.
“I think initially we were hoping that he would maybe be playing in a rehab game today, but he just isn’t there,” Callaway said.