The nightmare continues.
This already brutal Mets season continues to hit new lows.
Already a season-low 18 games under .500 in late July, the Mets found out Saturday they will be without superstar outfielder Juan Soto for at least the next month.
Soto, nursing a sore left calf, aggravated the injury while running the bases Friday night and was placed on the injured list. It is a more severe calf strain than the one to the right calf that sidelined him for just under three weeks in April. An MRI showed it is a Grade 2 strain, which typically takes at least a month to heal.
“It’s not what we were hoping for,” interim manager Andy Green said before the Mets hosted the Dodgers at Citi Field. “He’s a guy that we love having him on the field, he’s a guy who loves to be on the people competing. We’ll be without him for a period of time now.
Juan Soto of the New York Mets during the fourth inning of the 2026 MLB All-Star Game. Getty Images
“We have more people looking at the MRI right now. It’s quick and a bit presumptuous to define an exact timeline. With our organization, we’ll check in with experts, not just in-house, but across the world for these types of things. So we’ll have more people look at this, get a better handle on how long this would be.”
Green said the severity of the injury is somewhere between Soto’s earlier calf strain and the one Francisco Lindor suffered, which cost him nine weeks. Asked if there is a chance Soto might not play again for the Mets this season, Green replied: “I wouldn’t categorize it as that way at this point in time.”
Juan Soto reacts after hitting a home run during the Mets’ July 9 game. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post
It may not make sense for Soto to return in mid-September with the Mets playing out the string. That is something the team will determine at a later date, based on how Soto progresses.
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“We’re all cognizant of his long-term importance to us, and we will factor that in appropriately,” the manager said. “It’s also good for healthy baseball players to get on the field and play baseball. We’ll balance that when the time comes.”
Before Friday’s game, Green said he thought Soto was just about ready to return to the outfield after sitting out Wednesday’s loss to the Brewers. But he felt the left calf while running to second base on Bo Bichette’s double-play grounder. Soto has been dealing with the calf issue since the second half resumed.
“Someone like him wants to be on the baseball field, he wants to play. The desire to be on the field is why he’s so special at what he does,” Green said. “So this last week we gave him at-bats, we gave him rest at times we felt was appropriate, and then yesterday he couldn’t get over the hump. Is it possible we could’ve looked back and moved a little bit quicker on this given where we’re at today? Yes. I don’t know that that ultimately changes the situation we’re in right now.”
The Mets’ lone All-Star, Soto has been one of few bright spots this season for the last-place team. He is hitting .293 with 21 homers and 52 RBIs in 84 games, along with an OPS of .947. Soto was one reason for fans to continue to follow the team, despite all that has gone wrong, along with the young players Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing and Zac Thornton.
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It has been a dreadful year for the Mets, who are on pace to lose 95 games — their most since the 2003 season. Injuries and underperformance have been constants.
The 27-year-old Soto has been incredibly durable throughout his nine-year career, but there is a strong possibility he could miss the most games of his career this season. His previous high was 13 in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign.