NEW YORK -- The trade that sent Antonio Bastardo to the Pirates for Jonathon Niese will give the Mets one more day to weigh their options in regards to shortstop Asdrúbal Cabrera, who suffered a strained patella tendon in his left knee on Sunday.
Cabrera is still likely to be placed on the disabled list on Tuesday, but the Mets instead opted to recall infielder Matt Reynolds from Triple-A Las Vegas to fill the vacancy on the 25-man roster left behind by Bastardo's departure. Reynolds homered in the Mets' 6-5 loss to the Yankees.
• Mets bring back Niese, send Bastardo to Bucs
Cabrera suffered the same injury during Spring Training and was forced to miss a couple of weeks after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection.
"I'm really concerned about it -- really concerned," manager Terry Collins said following Sunday's victory over the Rockies. "He was in a lot of pain, a lot more than I've ever seen him."
The Mets' roster has been riddled with injuries, but the 30-year-old shortstop has managed to stay fairly healthy, playing in 100 of New York's first 104 games this season. In those games, he has hit .255 (95-for-373) with 13 home runs and 33 RBIs while posting a .987 fielding percentage, which is the third-best mark among Major League shortstops.
Cabrera's injury comes shortly after third baseman José Reyes landed on the disabled list with an intercostal strain, leaving the Mets strapped for infielders. General manager Sandy Alderson said Monday that the club had no discussions about bolstering the infield depth at the non-waiver Trade Deadline.
"It's not something we tried to address today," said Alderson, who did deal for outfielder Jay Bruce. "The Cabrera situation only arose yesterday, and of course Reyes is out, but to some extent we hope this is temporary. We like Reynolds as a utility player and somebody who can play shortstop for a period of time. We do have some flexibility with the players we have on the team -- [Wilmer] Flores and Kelly Johnson can play a lot of positions.
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"We have some players at Las Vegas that we like that can play more infield positions. [Gavin] Cecchini can play shortstop, so I think we do have some flexibility and some resources within the organization so that we didn't feel like we needed to go outside of the organization. The focus was offense, so we worked hard to get something done in that regard."
Reynolds started at shortstop and batted seventh on Monday against the Yankees. In his first 27 games for New York this season, the 25-year-old slashed .233/.267/.419 with six RBIs.
Worth noting
• Left fielder Yoenis Céspedes' strained right quad kept him out of the lineup for the second consecutive game and the eighth time in the last 19 games. He was replaced by Alejandro De Aza.