{"id":669208,"date":"2026-04-07T23:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669208\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T23:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:14:34","slug":"mets-playing-it-safe-with-juan-sotos-calf-injury-take-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669208\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets playing it safe with Juan Soto&#8217;s calf injury: &#8216;Take your time&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Juan Soto \u2014 among the best players in baseball and a $765 million investment \u2014 the Mets are \u201cplaying it safe,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>A day prior, the Mets <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/06\/sports\/juan-soto-to-miss-at-least-two-weeks-in-mets-injury-calamity\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">placed their star outfielder on the 10-day injured list <\/a>with a right calf strain and said such injuries generally lead to a two-to-three week absence.<\/p>\n<p>Soto sustained the injury Friday in San Francisco and sat on the bench Saturday and Sunday. With a calf injury that Mendoza repeatedly has called \u201ctricky,\u201d the Mets opted to officially sideline Soto and brought up Ronny Mauricio from Triple-A Syracuse.<\/p>\n<p>For the time being, Mendoza said, Soto will be receiving treatment and will not do much baseball activity until the soreness fades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no reason for us to continue to go day by day and put him through a series of exercises and make a decision whether he\u2019s going to be available or not,\u201d Mendoza said before opening a series against the Diamondbacks at Citi Field. \u201cWe just decided: You know what? Take your time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without Soto, Brett Baty received a third start in right field and Carson Benge moved to left field.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39019816\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-york-mets-left-fielder-124850326.jpg\" alt=\"New York Mets left fielder Juan Soto (22) flips his bat after striking out against the St. Louis Cardinals.\" class=\"wp-image-39019816\"  \/>Mets left fielder Juan Soto (22) flips his bat after striking out against the St. Louis Cardinals during the fourth inning at Busch Stadium.  Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Baty was playing with a thumb he jammed Saturday and caused him to be scratched from Sunday\u2019s lineup. Jorge Polanco was serving as designated hitter for a seventh straight start, not ready to play the field because of Achilles soreness.<\/p>\n<p>Both of those conditions helped the Mets settle on a call-up of Mauricio, who can move around the infield.<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza acknowledged that Mauricio\u2019s playing time will be \u201climited,\u201d but he must be ready for anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a pretty important role coming off the bench,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cLefty bat, the versatility defensively, pinch-running if we need to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 He has to stay ready because [he could be needed] quick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza did not know when Polanco would be able to play the field again, saying, \u201cIt can happen any day\u201d and offering a similar rationale to moving Soto to the injured list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s still early. Why risk it?\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWhy push it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the Mets will honor the St. John\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team that reached the Sweet 16. Dylan Darling will throw out the ceremonial first pitch to former St. John\u2019s pitcher John Franco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Juan Soto \u2014 among the best players in baseball and a $765 million investment \u2014 the Mets&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,120,134,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,4804,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-669208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jorge-polanco","10":"tag-juan-soto","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-ronny-mauricio","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116365971635823424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669208","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=669208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}