NEW YORK -- Only seven times this season have the Mets played a full game with both Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor in their lineup. Tuesday night, with Lindor potentially hours away from returning from the injured list, the Mets lost Soto to another injury.
The good news is that Soto is considered day to day after exiting New York’s 9-6 loss to the Cubs due to what the Mets initially termed “left side back tightness.” The bad news is the team can ill afford to play any more games without Soto, who has been challenged by physical ailments throughout this season.
In addition to a right calf strain that sent him to the injured list in April, Soto has dealt with hand and elbow issues that haven’t cost him time. On Tuesday, SNY cameras showed Soto wincing during swings in each of his two at-bats. He exited after the fourth inning.
“His back locked up there,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It got to a point there, you could tell something was off. He was making some faces there. Obviously I checked with him, and it got to a point where it was bothering him to throw and then to get his ‘A’ swing on it. At that point, I thought it was just best to get him out of the game and have the trainers look at him.”
As of late Tuesday night, the Mets didn’t expect to send Soto for an MRI, “but we’ll see where we’re at [Wednesday] when he wakes up and shows up to the ballpark, and we’ll go from there,” Mendoza said.
Soto was unavailable for comment late Tuesday.
If he sits out any more games, it will extend the length of time the Mets must proceed without both him and Lindor in the lineup. After those two played the first seven-plus games of the season together, Soto strained his right calf, missing two and a half weeks. On the night Soto returned, April 22, Lindor strained his own left calf and has been sidelined ever since. Now, with Lindor set to return as soon as Wednesday, Soto faces the prospect of additional missed time.
Before this season, Soto and Lindor were two of Major League Baseball’s most durable players. Soto hadn’t been on the injured list since 2021, while Lindor had averaged 158 games per season from 2022-25.
When healthy this season, Soto has been the most productive Met by a considerable margin. At the time of Tuesday’s early exit, he was batting .299/.395/.570 with 17 homers and six stolen bases. Soto’s .965 OPS ranks second in the National League behind Shohei Ohtani.