James McCann sits out Mets' win with sore left wrist
Mets catcher James McCann uses a PitchCom under his chest protector to signal pitches during an MLB baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
WASHINGTON — James McCann was out of the Mets’ lineup for a second day in a row Thursday because of soreness in his left wrist, but he said he will be back Friday for the series opener against the Mariners.
That was why Tomas Nido started again in the finale with the Nationals.
“It’s the first time I’ve dealt with it. I don’t really know what it’s from,” McCann said. “It’s more just the time frame of the season, being that it’s May, being smart and not pushing something that would cause me to lose more time.”
McCann and Nido have more or less split time behind the plate. McCann, ostensibly the starter coming into spring training, has made 18 starts. Nido has 15.
Given that time share, as well as the time of year, the Mets didn’t have a reason to push McCann.
“Nothing that’s not manageable,” manager Buck Showalter said. “He could play if we wanted to push it.”
Reliever swap
After his three scoreless innings Wednesday, Stephen Nogosek was sent back to Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday because he was going to be unavailable for a couple of days and therefore of no use to the Mets, who needed someone who could pitch.
They called up Jake Reed, a side-arming righthander, in his place.
“It’s the good news/bad news,” Showalter said of sending down Nogosek. “They present themselves as an option to come up. Then they do the job up here. Then [they’re an option] the next time — which we all know is going to happen — you go to reach for it. They control it, to an extent.
“That’s the challenge that I’ve given him when they left here. ‘Hey, go down there. It’s not a level beneath you. We need you to continue to have people think good things about you as an option to come back.’”
Pitching plans
The Mets’ rotation against the Mariners this weekend: Max Scherzer on Friday, Chris Bassitt on Saturday, Carlos Carrasco on Sunday.
Seattle on Saturday will start righthander George Kirby, one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and a native of Rye. This will be his second game in the majors. The Mets drafted him in the 32nd round in 2016 but he went to Elon instead of signing.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
