Who will Mets pluck to replace Travis Jankowski?
Mets center fielder Travis Jankowski looks on from the dugout during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game One of an MLB doubleheader at Citi Field on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Travis Jankowski has a broken hand and Buck Showalter is on the hunt for another orchid.
The Mets manager — who’s fond of saying that people shouldn’t overlook an orchid while searching for a rose — said the Mets likely will look internally for outfield depth and “in a perfect world” hope to find someone who can fill the hole left by Jankowski’s particular skill set.
Jankowski, the fan favorite and former Stony Brook star, has a fractured fourth metacarpal in his left hand and underwent surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery on Friday, the Mets announced. The injury generally takes about six to eight weeks to heal.
“He’ll be back,” Showalter said Friday. “It’s a loss of a very useful player to us . . . Travis did a lot of things for us.”
Though struggling at the plate before being placed on the injured list Friday, Jankowski had been valuable as a late-game defensive substitution, has strong bat-to-ball skills and is a more than capable baserunner, making him one of the Mets’ strongest candidates in pinch-running situations.
He hurt his hand diving for a ball in the eighth inning against the Giants on Wednesday (he was inserted in leftfield in the fourth after Jeff McNeil collided with the wall while making a catch). He was placed on the IL retroactive to Thursday.
In addition to their regular starters, McNeil obviously is an option, and, in a pinch, Eduardo Escobar, Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis can play the outfield. But though the Mets didn’t call up an outfielder Friday, Showalter indicated that they’ll likely look for help from the minors. That could mean the return of Nick Plummer, who played in two major-league games this year; the debut of the red-hot Jake Mangum, who recently was promoted to Syracuse, or bringing up Khalil Lee, their highest-ranked Triple-A outfielder.
“There are three or four guys down there” that he and general manager Billy Eppler are considering, Showalter said. “I mention Nick because he’s been here and was in spring training with us, but you’ll see some things happen to cover the loss of Travis . . . I feel good where we are with that, but obviously [they don’t have] the complete skill set Travis has.”
That said, Mangum certainly has been impressive lately. The 26-year-old switch hitter is a strong defensive outfielder and plus runner, according to Prospects Live. He was hitting .283 with Double-A Binghamton before his promotion, and, in his three games with Syracuse going into Friday, was 8-for-12 with three doubles.
Unlike Plummer and Lee, he’s not on the 40-man roster, so the team would have to make room.
Plummer, the team’s No. 8 prospect according to mlb.com, wasn’t in the lineup for Syracuse on Friday. He has a .250/.313/.511 slash line, six homers and 21 RBIs in 24 games in Triple-A this season.
Lee, the No. 7 prospect, has struggled this year and briefly was demoted to Class A, but he played in 11 games in the majors last year and hit .274 with Syracuse in 2021.
There’s also the other aspect of these decisions, Showalter said — the probability that whomever they do call up might not get much playing time.
“You go get a Jankowski because of what he brings and what you need, but you also want to keep [down] guys . . . those guys playing every day [in the minors] and improving because they might be an everyday player at some point,” Showalter said. “Someone goes down and there are certain guys you don’t want to put in that role because they’re better served, and the organization is better served, by them playing every day and continuing to develop instead of playing every three or four days and pinch running here and there. So there’s a fine line.”
Showalter did acknowledge that for some, part of development is big-league experience. And there’s no doubt that these injuries provide an opening.
“It’s just a different challenge and an opportunity for some people to have us go, hmm,” he said. “Look at all these opportunities these guys are getting. Maybe we found an orchid while searching for a rose. I love that line.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
