{"id":28149,"date":"2025-05-15T06:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/28149\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T06:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:19:10","slug":"why-mets-decided-to-sit-juan-soto-before-subway-series-vs-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/28149\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mets decided to sit Juan Soto before Subway series vs. Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Mendoza never really convinced his star right fielder he could benefit from a rest on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But the Mets manager had the final call, and Juan Soto was absent from the starting lineup for the first time this season during the Mets\u2019 4-0 loss to the Pirates<\/a> in their series finale against the Pirates at Citi Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a back-and-forth until I finally told him, \u2018You\u2019re going to be down,\u2019 \u201d Mendoza said, recounting his conversation with Soto following Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Mendoza said he wanted Soto to utilize Thursday\u2019s off-day, coupled with his night off Wednesday, to receive a thorough break. <\/p>\n

The Mets open the Subway Series on Friday at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

Soto, according to Mendoza, was \u201cgetting after it\u201d in the weight room on Wednesday, instead of just relaxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that says a lot of who he is as a player, as a person, that on a day when he\u2019s not in the lineup he\u2019s getting after it pretty good in the weight room,\u201d the manager said before the loss.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Azocar (0-for-1) start in right field with Starling Marte (1-for-3) as the DH. <\/p>\n

\"JuanJuan Soto did not play in the Mets\u2019 4-0 loss to the Pirates on May 14, 2025. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Soto has one start as the DH this season.<\/p>\n

Ronny Mauricio will remain in the minor leagues once his rehab assignment is complete, according to president of baseball operations David Stearns<\/a>, unless the Mets have a need on the major league roster and deem the infielder ready to contribute.<\/p>\n

Mauricio, who was elevated last weekend to Double-A Binghamton, is rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a subsequent procedure to remove scar tissue from the knee that cost him all last season.<\/p>\n

\"RonnyRonny Mauricio waits to take batting practice during a Mets\u2019 spring training session. Corey Sipkin \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still got a little way to go to get back to being a healthy player, to get back into that true baseball shape, ready to compete at a high level in the big leagues,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cIt\u2019s continuing to get him at-bats, get him reps in the minor leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Blackburn will extend to about 75 pitches in his rehab start for Binghamton on Friday. <\/p>\n

The right-hander will then receive at least one additional outing in the minor leagues before he\u2019s considered for a return from the injured list.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Stearns said Blackburn will be built up as a starter, in case the Mets have a need in the rotation. <\/p>\n

Otherwise, he will be available to pitch from the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere he slots in when he\u2019s ready is going to be dependent on the team need,\u201d Stearns said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Luisangel Acu\u00f1a, who started at second base and went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, played the final two innings in center field. <\/p>\n

It was Acu\u00f1a\u2019s first major league appearance in the outfield. <\/p>\n

He did not have a fielding opportunity after moving to center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Mendoza never really convinced his star right fielder he could benefit from a rest on Wednesday. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,1443,134,2186,4,1690,61,62,2548,2547,4804,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-28149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carlos-mendoza","10":"tag-juan-soto","11":"tag-luisangel-acuna","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkyankees","18":"tag-ronny-mauricio","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114510402196810236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}