NEW YORK -- A day after suffering a head injury during a violent collision at first base, Mets infielder Jared Young was doing “as good as could be expected or hoped for,” according to manager Andy Green.
Young was diagnosed with a concussion but discharged from the hospital overnight, after receiving a battery of tests that all returned promising outcomes. He was still experiencing headaches and short-term memory loss on Friday, according to Green, and the team placed him on the 7-day concussion injury list, effectively ending his season.
Still, given the force of the collision, Mets officials were pleased with Young’s progress.
“Everything we have heard has been really optimistic from a recovery standpoint, from a getting-back-on-the-field-eventually standpoint,” Green said, adding that Young had his sense of humor intact. “I am relieved. I think everybody is.”
Young’s injury occurred during the sixth inning of a 3-0 loss to the Phillies on Thursday, when Mets pitcher Nolan McLean accidentally kneed him in the head as both players attempted to field a ground ball. Upon being carted off the field by paramedics, Young was taken to a local hospital, where a CT scan came back negative.
A negative CT scan typically indicates that there is no brain bleeding, according to Dr. Dennis A. Cardone, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine at NYU Langone who specializes in sports medicine.
“That would be the most serious complication of a head injury,” Dr. Cardone said in a telephone interview. “So the CT scan is quite good to rule that out.”
Per Dr. Cardone, the violence of a collision does not necessarily correlate with the speed of recovery. Nor does the fact that Young lost consciousness. Most patients recover within two weeks regardless of those factors, provided there is no brain bleeding.
However, given that the Mets have just nine games left in their season, the speed of Young’s healing is mostly irrelevant in terms of his return-to-play timeline. He should be fully recovered long before the start of next season.
“Once he’s back to his baseline, he feels back to normal, he’s tolerating exercise, then we’d feel very comfortable getting him back on the field without any concern,” Dr. Cardone said.
To replace Young over the final stretch of the season, the Mets called up infielder Ronny Mauricio. He will spend most of his time on the bench, with Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Christopher Morel splitting time at first base.
Green and other Mets officials will continue checking in with Young as he recovers and undergoes additional tests.
In the aftermath of Young’s injury, several Mets spoke about how well-liked the veteran is in the clubhouse. Green, whose relationship with Young dates to their shared time in the Cubs organization earlier this decade, recalled how Young reacted when the Cubs optioned him to Triple-A on the final weekend of the 2022 season.
In those situations, it’s standard practice for a player to go home for the offseason, rather than report to the Minors for a single game. But Young, after being demoted, insisted on playing. So he made the six-hour drive from Chicago to Iowa, texted the Triple-A manager to put him in the lineup and wound up hitting a walk-off, two-run homer.
“I’ve never had a player do that in that situation,” Green said. “It’s just indicative of the type of person he is, how much he loves being on the baseball field.”