Injury updates: Cano, Lugo, McNeil, Nimmo

May 28th, 2019

LOS ANGELES -- Mets second baseman is progressing quickly enough from a left quadriceps strain that the Mets brought him with them to Los Angeles, so he could work on the field with members of their training staff. An hour before Monday’s game, Cano was participating in running exercises, jogging along the curve of the outfield grass.

Cano is eligible to come off the injured list June 2 in Arizona. The Mets are not saying if they believe he will be able to make that date, but he will at least be with the club at that time.

Also joining the Mets on their seven-game West Coast swing is reliever , who is rehabbing right shoulder tendinitis and is eligible to come off the IL as soon as Thursday. That appears unlikely for Lugo, who hasn’t thrown a bullpen session since suffering his injury. But Lugo, also, is progressing.

Further behind are infielder , outfielder and reliever Justin Wilson, all of whom stayed back in New York.

“Those guys aren’t going to be doing anything on the field anytime soon, so they don’t really need to be here with the team doing stuff on the field,” manager Mickey Callaway said, noting that the Mets left a member of their training staff behind to work with those three.

McNeil went on the IL the same day as Cano. He did not classify his left hamstring strain as serious at the time, calling it tightness. Nimmo is rehabbing from a bulging cervical disc and the effects of whiplash; he hopes to begin more intensive activities once he recovers his full range of motion. Wilson is taking things slowly as he rehabs from left elbow tightness. He’s been playing catch off flat ground, but, like Lugo, has yet to throw off a mound.

Wright visits

For the second time this season, David Wright joined the Mets on the West Coast. Wright, a special advisor to general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, lives in the Los Angeles area and previously visited the team in San Diego. He spent time Monday chatting with former teammates Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz, among others.

Remembering Buckner

Mookie Wilson, who hit the game-winning ground ball that scooted under Bill Buckner’s glove in 1986 World Series Game 6, recalled Buckner, who died Monday at age 69, as a friend for more than three decades. The two came to know each other after they became linked in history by that grounder.

“Bill was a great, great baseball player whose legacy should not be defined by one play,” Wilson said in a statement.

The Mets lined up in front of their dugout Monday for a moment of silence honoring Buckner, who began his career with the Dodgers. Another member of that 1986 Mets team, Keith Hernandez, recalled losing the National League batting title to Buckner, then with the Cubs, on the final day of the 1980 season.

“My former Major Leaguers and teammates are slowly moving off into the sunset,” Hernandez said on Twitter. “I am really upset about Bill Buckner’s passing. He’s another guy I wished I could have played with, not just against. He was a terrific hitter as well as a human being. Tears.”