The Mets made a series of roster moves on Monday. outfielder Starling Marte has been placed on the 10-day IL with a right groin strain.
slashing .248/.301/.324 with five homers and 28 RBI just a year after being one of the Amazins’ biggest contributors in the 101-win 2022 season — .814 OPS in 118 games.
Manager Buck Showalter alluded the 34-year-old’s struggles to the double groin surgery he underwent in the offseason.
“[Marte] is going to see the doctor [Tuesday] in Philadelphia,” said Showalter. “The doctor who did some of his surgeries in the offseason to kind of get our arms around everything. … I think we all know by the level we’ve seen him play at last year that he hasn’t been able to do that consistently [this year].
“I don’t think he’s 100 percent [healthy]. And I think we need to try and get our arms around trying to get him back to that again. Until we make sure that some of the pain and discomfort he’s feeling is not from the surgeries — we felt like that was behind us but sometimes, who knows? — We’ll let the guy who did the surgeries look at everything and ask him why he’s having this strained area there.”
The underlying metrics certainly point to injuries playing a factor in Marte’s season. The outfielder ranked in the 68th percentile in sprint speed last season versus 46th this season. His outfield jump was in the 58th percentile in 2022 diving all the way down to 18th, , followed by a massive dip in his general offensive numbers.
“I feel for him,” said Showalter. “It’s got to be really frustrating to have that much skill and ability and not be able to get to it. We’re going to try and go in another direction and see if we can get it taken care of.
“Can that happen in eight or nine days? I don’t know. I’ll wait and see what the doctor has to say [Tuesday].”
OTHER ROSTER MOVES
Following Marte’s placement on the IL and Baty’s demotion, infielder Jonathan Arauz and outfielder Abraham Almonte have been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.
Arauz has played just two games for the Mets this season spending most of his time in the minors. The 24-year-old is slashing .244/.344/.429 with 14 homers and 49 RBI for Syracuse this season.
Almonte has not appeared in the bigs this season, however, the 34-year-old has played in 10 different seasons in his major league career with seven different teams — most of his time coming with the Cleveland Guardians from 2015-17. The veteran owns a career .676 OPS in 455 games.
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