{"id":686858,"date":"2026-04-30T17:18:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T17:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/686858\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T17:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T17:18:30","slug":"mets-place-luis-robert-jr-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/686858\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets Place Luis Robert Jr. On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

11:30am: Robert is receiving an epidural injection and will be reevaluated in a week to 10 days, per Tim Britton of The Athletic<\/a>. The Mets don\u2019t currently expect him to miss too much more than the minimum.<\/p>\n

9:20am: The Mets have formally placed Robert on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar disc herniation. Corner infielder Eric Wagaman<\/a> is up from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

9:12am: The Mets are expected to place center fielder Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> on the 10-day injured list today, reports SNY\u2019s Chelsea Janes<\/a>. Robert has been battling back discomfort for several days and underwent an MRI yesterday, MLB.com\u2019s Anthony DiComo noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trips to the injured list are nothing new for Robert, a star-caliber outfielder whose health hasn\u2019t allowed him to regularly reach his sky-high ceiling. The 28-year-old raked at a .264\/.314\/.542 clip and belted 38 homers to go along with 20 steals and plus-plus defense with the White Sox back in 2023. He\u2019s only played in 234 of 354 possible games since that time (66.1%). That 2023 season is the only time Robert has reached even 450 plate appearances or exceeded 110 games played in a single season. (He did play in 56 of 60 possible games as a rookie in the shortened 2020 season.)<\/p>\n

Along with that decline in health came a downturn in performance. Robert suffered an MCL sprain at the end of September in 2023 and a hip flexor strain early in 2024, the latter costing him about two months of action. When he was on the field in \u201924, he stumbled through the least-productive season of his career, slashing just .224\/.278\/.364 with a career-worst 33.2% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

It was more of the same to begin the 2025 season, though Robert caught fire in early June after the Sox sat him for a few days to refocus his mechanics in the batter\u2019s box. Robert took a few games to find his stroke even after that little breather, but he went on a tear thereafter, slashing .282\/.344\/.471 (125 wRC+) in nearly 200 plate appearances \u2026 before again returning to the injured list \u2014 this time due to his second hamstring strain of the \u201925 campaign.<\/p>\n

Along the way, the White Sox fielded trade interest in Robert, but they opted to hang onto him after not finding offers to their liking. They exercised the first of two $20MM club options on Robert to begin the offseason, and several months later the Mets landed him in a trade sending infielder\/outfielder Luisangel Acu\u00f1a<\/a> and minor league righty Truman Pauley<\/a> back to Chicago.<\/p>\n

Robert is currently mired in a 2-for-19 slump, dropping what was a solid .258\/.372\/.379 batting line to a .224\/.327\/.329 output that checks in about 7% worse than league-average overall, by measure of wRC+. The dip in production coincides with the Mets beginning to sit Robert on occasion about a week and a half ago. Manager Carlos Mendoza<\/a> eventually revealed that Robert has been dealing with back discomfort. Last night\u2019s MRI, it seems, did not produce favorable results.<\/p>\n

A formal diagnosis isn\u2019t clear. The Mets have not yet announced an IL placement and thus have not revealed the nature of Robert\u2019s ailment. Robert last appeared in a game on April 26, so his IL stint can be backdated to April 27 \u2014 the maximum three days allowed. That technically makes him eligible to return in just a week\u2019s time, though his actual timetable will naturally hinge on the specific injury that\u2019s been plaguing him.<\/p>\n

Robert joins Francisco Lindor<\/a> and Jorge Polanco<\/a> on the shelf. That\u2019s a third of the Mets\u2019 starting lineup sidelined. With Robert out of the equation for the time being, the Mets\u2019 options in center field include veteran Tyrone Taylor<\/a> and rookie Carson Benge<\/a> (who\u2019s been their primary right fielder but has four games in center this year). Recently signed veteran Austin Slater<\/a> has a fair bit of center field experience but hasn\u2019t played there this season and has only logged 63 frames at the position since Opening Day 2024.<\/p>\n

Down in Triple-A, the Mets have 2022 No. 75 overall pick Nick Morabito<\/a>, who\u2019s already on the 40-man roster (but has yet to debut) and is slashing .262\/.382\/.452 with four homers, four doubles and six steals. Morabito entered the season ranked 11th among Mets farmhands at Baseball America. He\u2019s the Mets\u2019 No. 12 prospect at MLB.com and No. 19 over at FanGraphs. Scouting reports peg him as a plus runner and center field defender with well below-average power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"11:30am: Robert is receiving an epidural injection and will be reevaluated in a week to 10 days, per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,369],"class_list":["post-686858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-luis-robert"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116494801535294266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686858","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=686858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}