The Mets officially received some tough news on Monday, as Jesse Winker is expected to be sidelined for 6-to-8 weeks after suffering a Grade 2 oblique strain he suffered during Sunday’s doubleheader against the Cardinals.
Winker was playing the field for the first time this season in Game 1 of the double dip, and he suffered the injury making a throw home trying to stop Nolan Arenado from scoring on a sacrifice fly.
“Obliques are tricky, we’ll feel it here,” Carlos Mendoza said Monday.
One area they’ll particularly feel it is in their designated hitter rotation — where Winker has filled a little bit more than half of the at-bats thus far this season as part of a platoon with veteran Starling Marte.
Marte is expected to take on more playing time in his absence — and he is in the lineup against the righty for Monday’s series opener in Arizona, but the skipper says the DH rotation will be fluid moving forward.
“We have options,” he said. “Marte will see time, but we have to take care of him too. [Mark] Vientos, [Brandon] Nimmo, some of those guys will some reps there as a DH — there’s a lot of different ways I can go there.”
Another option set to rejoin the roster with Winker’s injury is Brett Baty, as first reported by SNY’s Andy Martino.
Baty turned things around following a brutal start to the season — hitting .333 with a .429 OBP over his last seven big-league games, but he was sent back down to Triple-A due to a roster crunch following Jeff McNeil’s return.
The youngster missed the last couple games with Syracuse due to a toe injury, but he was able to go through a full workout each of the past two days and Mendoza expects him to be a player off the bench starting Monday.
His role this time around will be similar to earlier this year.
“It definitely helps having him back,” the skipper said. “He can play some second, some third, another lefty bat for us. That allows me to move some guys around not only when I’m writing out the lineup, but when we’re making in game moves as well.”
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