MLB

D’Arnaud out two months but won’t need foot surgery

Mets catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud will not require surgery to fix a broken bone in his left foot, but is expected to miss up to two months according to manager Terry Collins. Though it’s clearly a setback to the Amazin’s and the highly touted centerpiece of the R.A. Dickey trade, it could have been worse.

“There’s no surgery necessary. He’s in a boot. They want him to do as little as possible for awhile, let that mending start,’’ Collins said before the Mets opened a nine-game homestand last night against the Nationals at Citi Field.

Asked for a ballpark estimate when d’Arnaud might return, Collins replied “Eight weeks, maybe sooner.’’

The 24-year-old d’Arnaud — acquired from Toronto as part of the deal for the Cy Young Award-winning Dickey — got hit on the foot by a foul ball in the sixth inning of Triple-A Las Vegas’ 3-2 victory over Sacramento Wednesday night.

The Mets said d’Arnaud suffered a non-displaced fracture of the first metatarsal of the left foot, and yesterday he saw doctors at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan to discern the severity of the injury.

A team spokesman said there was nothing else broken, and the young catcher was sent home and told to avoid weight-bearing for a month.

“Anytime they say it’s six-to-eight weeks, it could be sooner,’’ Collins told The Post. “It could be four; but even if it is, he’s not going to play for another two or three weeks, so I just said eight.’’

At the time of the injury, d’Arnaud was hitting .250 with five doubles, a homer and eight RBIs in 36 at-bats.

There was a chance d’Arnaud could have been promoted to the big league club in the next two months, but now he will concentrate on his rehab, then go back to Triple-A.

In the meantime, the Mets have gotten far more than they expected from 32-year-old catcher John Buck, who also came from Toronto along with d’Arnaud and young pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

But Buck’s red-hot start can’t last all season, and it remains to be seen exactly how much offense the Mets can expect from him.

Buck came into last night’s game with six home runs and 19 RBIs, the former tied for third-best in the major leagues and the latter tied for second-most in the majors, just one RBI behind Baltimore’s Chris Davis.

But Buck cooled off precipitously, after having been just the fourth player in major league history with 19 RBIs through just 10 games.

The broken foot also bolsters the argument of those who say d’Arnaud is injury-prone.

He missed the entire second half of last season because of injury, when he suffered a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on June 25, also in Las Vegas.

D’Arnaud also suffered a back injury which curtailed his 2010 campaign and has averaged just 84 games over the past three seasons.

As good as Buck has been, and as talented as Syndergaard may be, the Dickey deal primarily will be weighed by how d’Arnaud performs.

And whatever the Mets get from him is going to be delayed for a couple of months.