Juan Soto removed from Mets' loss to Cubs with back issue
Mets’ Juan Soto returns to the dugout after lining out against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Juan Soto has been trying to carry this Mets team on his back. And Tuesday, it got hurt.
Soto was removed after the fourth inning of their 9-6 loss to the Cubs Tuesday with what the team called left-side back tightness. He’s currently listed as day-to-day, and the Mets will determine Wednesday if he’ll need further tests.
“His back locked up there,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He got treatment during the game, but it got to a point there where you could tell something was off…It was bothering him to throw and then just get his ‘A’ swing on it.”
Francisco Lindor, rehabbing from a calf strain and playing with Triple-A Syracuse Tuesday, is likely to be activated Wednesday – meaning the two will have played together in just nine games this year.
Heading into Tuesday, Soto had reached base safely in 13 straight games, batting .386 with eight runs, three doubles, four homers, nine RBIs and 12 walks in that span.
There's no good time to lose Soto, but this would be a particularly bad one. There are six weeks until the Aug. 3 trade deadline meaning that, realistically, this could be this team’s last gasp at making a run.
“I think we're at the point of the season where there's a sense of urgency,” David Stearns said before the game. They’re at “a period of time where we've got to start playing better baseball, win more games consistently. Francisco is a big part of that. We think he can help us…[But] we also can't put everything on Francisco to come back at a time when he hasn't been playing baseball very much, and expect him to put us on his back.
Soto, who had been wearing a heating pad around his back, has been one of the very few bright spots on a team mired in malaise. But though he’s historically been one of the most durable players in baseball, he’s been bitten by injuries a few times this year.
Soto missed 15 games with a right calf strain in April, has battled through wrist discomfort – generally on swings and misses. He returned from the calf injury on April 22 – the same day Lindor hurt his own calf.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
