Much to everyone’s surprise, Carlos Beltran is not the projected Opening Day starter who won’t be in the Mets lineup Friday at Florida. That great honor goes to Jason Bay who should’ve been the Mets left fielder from day one.
I hate to see this happen to Bay because I think it’s important for him to get off to a good start this season considering how last season went and this is obviously not going to qualify as a good start. On the bright side, Bay’s DL stint will be retroactive to March 25th, the last time he appeared in a spring training contest. So Bay will be eligible to make his return from the DL on April 9th, a Saturday game against the Washington Nationals a day after the Mets play their first home game of the season.
So hopefully it won’t take him too long to get back into the groove of baseball activities. He did participate in almost all of spring training, so it shouldn’t be too big of a problem for him. I still look for Bay to have a bounce back season this year. He’s too good of a player to let the same thing happen to him again this year.
Considering the Mets past issues with injuries, this is not what you wanted to see right from the get go. With Sandy Alderson and his regime running the team, you hoped the team could get a fresh start, but the injury bug still seems to be lingering. If the Mets want to at least make this season interesting, they will need to shake this quick. I’ve always been of the opinion that this team has had the talent to compete on the field, they just never had the ability to stay healthy. I think that still applies this year. The Mets could easily run out a Top 3 NL offense if things break right. The problem is, will everything break right?
I think it was more precautionary. I don't think it's a serious injury at all because it's just a strain, but they know it's early in the season so play it safe with him and make sure he heals up quickly before worsening the injury.