This Is EXCELLENT News For The Mets...

This is excellent news for the Mets. After last night's massive scare, Juan Soto is okay. Manager Carlos Mendoza confirmed last night the star's day-to-day status, allowing the Masons to make the push that President of Baseball Operations David Stearns believes they have in them. With Francisco Lindor's return on the horizon, fans have something positive to look forward to given Soto's status, so we'll dive into the latest only here on Mets Digest. I'm your host today, Mike Duda, equipped to do so, but first, I want to thank each and every single one of the over seven and a quarter thousand subscribers that we have here on the channel. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to hit that free subscribe button, and if you're part of the 65% of viewers who have not yet done so, please consider we're on the road to 8,000 subscribers. It's free and it's worth your while. We got videos coming out each and every single day between myself and Josh Byrne, sometimes two, three, and even four videos in a given day. Thank you so much in advance, and for those of you that couldn't tune into last night's breaking news episode detailing all that we had at the time for Soto's injury, thankfully there are some positive updates. We'll go back in time to 8.57 p.m. Eastern Standard Time when New York Met and MLB insider Anthony Tacoma said the following on Twitter. Juan Soto has exited tonight's game after four innings. More to come. That more came half an hour later with an update that Juan Soto was removed from tonight's game due to, quote, left side back tightness, end quote, according to the Mets. They posted that on their Twitter account, and every single source ended up following, saying, hey, it's only left side back tightness. Then turning it over to John Heyman of the New York Post, another trustworthy insider, he said the initial belief is that Soto only had a back spasm, meaning it shouldn't be that long on the injured list, and thankfully that follows. We have a positive timetable on Soto, according to Carlos Mendoza, the manager from SNY Mets. He said Juan Soto is day-to-day after his back, quote, locked up on him during the game last night. Now this is furthered by Tacoma, who goes on to say Juan Soto's, quote, back locked up, end quote, according to the Skip, who is bothering him to throw and swing, quote, but as of right now, end quote, he's only day-to-day. Now obviously if he's having trouble throwing and swinging, that is basically everything that you do on a baseball field as a position player, so you really can't play through that injured, especially when you have the star status of Soto. Why stay out there for a team that's nine games under 500 when you could be seriously injured if you do? Why not just take some time, come out of the game, maybe take a day or two off, and then get right back into the swing of things? I think the Mets did the right thing here by taking him out as a precautionary move. Honestly, you weren't getting really anything from Soto anyway. A guy that's playing hurt is not going to perform well. It's your star as well, so why risk the injury? Now here is the general scoop that we have on the injury. Manager Carlos Mendoza said after Tuesday's game last night against the Cubs that Soto with a back injury is considered day-to-day, according to Newsday. Mendoza said that Soto's back locked up on him during the game, which had an impact on his ability to throw and swing. The fact that this team has labeled him as day-to-day bodes well for his chances of avoiding the injury list, though the 27-year-old star could still sit out a game or two as a precaution. Now it might actually end up being three if he needs two days of rest, because the Mets do have a doubleheader today against the Cubs. They are playing in just a couple of minutes, as you're seeing this, for game one, and then later tonight at seven o'clock for game two. M.J. Melendez and Eric Wagemann could be candidates to start in the outfield during any games that Soto may miss. Because Tyrone Taylor is still injured, he is currently on a rehab assignment, so no Taylor to fill in, who is usually that fourth outfielder. Instead, it'll either be Melendez or Wagemann. Could even be Jared Young, who switched from first base to left field last night. Then Mark Vientos came in the game to replace that void, I guess you could say, from Young's position over at first base. Now here's why it is imperative for Soto to be okay. A healthy Soto is something the last place Mets can ill afford to lose. They were already down seven to two last night when Soto left, with Kodai Senga having given up seven runs in three and two-thirds innings. He had an atrocious night. You can tune into Josh's video later, who's going to detail Senga's night, and just how bad he's been all year for the Amazons. But right now, the Mets can't seem to catch a break. After their loss nine to six last night, the Mets stand at 34-44, ten games under the 500 mark, and last in the National League East, 14 games behind the Atlanta Braves. And additionally, they are pretty far back in the wild card. Now, furthermore, a lengthy Soto injury would almost assuredly be a death kneel for the 2026 Mets, though the hope will be that his injury isn't serious, and it seems that it isn't, as only day to day. In either event, the team will eventually have to consider becoming settlers if the current team continues to struggle. For now, however, they are staying the course, and that is what President of Baseball Operations David Stern said in a press conference yesterday. He took questions from the media for about 20 minutes. We'll detail all of that later today in the last video that we have coming out on Mets Digest today. That'll be right before game two. However, this is what Stern said that I want to hone in on right now. I think we're going to continue to give this team time to prove that we can get back in this in a very legitimate sense. I think team owner Steve Cohen wants us to certainly be better than we are. He's frustrated. We're all frustrated. Steve expects us to do better than this. I expect us to do better than this. He, like me, is going to withhold judgment on any sort of trade deadline strategy until we have to make a decision closer to that time. So let's go back to Decomo for some long form content. He was able to get up a longer article about Soto and the grand scheme of Soto's injury because this does tie into Francisco Lindor, who we'll talk about in just a second. Because right now, in addition to a right calf strain that sent him to the injured list in April for about 15 days, Soto has dealt with hand and elbow issues that haven't cost him any time nor games. As of late Tuesday night, the Mets did not expect to send Soto for an MRI. However, as we turn this over to the skip, Carlos Mendoza, he said, we'll see where we're at Wednesday when he wakes up and shows up to the ballpark and we'll go from there. Meaning an MRI might actually happen at some point today, depending on how Soto feels. Now, Juan was not available for questioning last night from the media. So nothing to say from Juan Soto, nothing to go over from his quotes. Here's the rest of what the skip had to say. He goes on to say his back locked up there. It got to a point there you could tell something was off. He was obviously making some faces there. He was grimacing. He was wincing. Obviously, I checked with him and it got to a point where it was bothering him to throw and then to get to his A-swing on it. At that point, I think it was just best to get him out of the game and have the trainers look at him. Now, if you looked at the video last night that I had, you'd know that they put a heating pad on that lower back area to try and make Soto feel better. But apparently or seemingly, it didn't work because that was in the bottom of the second and then he only came out a couple of innings later. So here is what Juan Soto has done this year. He has been absolutely incredible. That average did tick below 300 after an 0-2 outing in a pretty injured outing for Soto. But regardless, he has been great, especially in the past month. The last week, he is hitting .412, .474, .824 for a 1.297 OPS, 2 dingers and 4 RBIs. Last 15 days, a notch below 400 at .395 average, .509 OBP, .744 slug, 1.254 OPS, 4 dingers and 8 RBIs. And the last 30 days, he is hitting above 300 at a .306, .404, .588, .992 slash, 7 homers and 17 RBIs. On the season as you see, a .299 batting average, .395 OBP, .570 slug for a .965 OPS, 1.69 OPS plus, 17 homeruns and 38 RBIs. So there is an additional importance for his day-to-day status according to Decomo and that being only 7 times this season have the Mets played a full game with both Soto and Lindor in the lineup. Tuesday night, with Lindor potentially just hours away from returning from the IL, the Mets lost Soto to another injury. If he sits out any more games, again, it's only day-to-day, but if he does end up sitting out today or maybe tomorrow or both, it will extend the length of the time the Mets must proceed without both him and Lindor in the lineup. After those two played the first 7 plus games of the season together, Soto strained his right calf, missing two and a half weeks. On the night that Soto returned, April 22nd, Lindor strained his own left calf and has been sidelined ever since. It's June 24th, so it's been over two months for Lindor. Now with Lindor set to return as soon as today, Wednesday, Soto faces the prospect of additional missed time. Before the season, Soto and Lindor were both two of Major League Baseball's most durable players. Soto hadn't been on the injured list since 2021, while Lindor has averaged 158 games per season from 2022 to 2025 and additionally was never on the injured list in his New York Met career. So here are the most recent updates in terms of Lindor. Francisco Lindor finished 2-for-5 with two singles last night for AAA Syracuse. He played eight innings at shortstop and Mets officials will gather soon to discuss what's next for him, who stands a good chance of returning from the injured list later this week. At 40 minutes, it was practically confirmed he's going to be in tonight, as Lindor came out of tonight's rehab game fine. Mets officials will discuss tonight, but there's a decent chance he'll be activated tomorrow and then turning it over to Tacomo's ex from this morning. All signs point to a return today for Francisco Lindor. Now that is great news, of course, because of the production that Lindor provides, but it does bring up some possible questions because remember this from about a year ago. According to Mike Puma, a clubhouse source indicated that relations between Lindor and Soto were, quote, chilly during the 2025 campaign. The source said, according to Puma, Soto is very businesslike, all business, no fluff. He wants to come to the yard and work his tail off and win games. He's not into fashion or any of that stuff. Lindor is into that. It's just two different personalities. Puma also wrote that there were, quote, questions over who exactly was leading the team as Lindor, quote, seemed to lose some of the grasp on the clubhouse. So the real question is, is this going to impact the Mets? Do you think that maybe them spending time on the injured list separate from one another and seemingly not playing together, keep in mind, they've only been nine games together. Is that actually a good thing? Or do you believe that it doesn't matter? The Mets need as much star power as they get. Will the supposed locker room problems, will they hurt the two stars in Lindor and Soto? Will they hurt the Amazons overall? Or is it an all hands on deck situation with the Mets 10 games under 500 clinging on by a string to hopefulness of making the playoffs in 2026? According to present baseball operations, David Stearns, there is still a chance. So we'll detail what he had to say in the next video. But unfortunately, that's all the time I have for you in this one. Thank you so much always for watching and let's go Mets.