Mets manager Jerry Manuel revealed last night that second baseman Luis Castillo’s calf is hurting — and that there’s an “outside chance” Ruben Tejada will need to stay on the roster once Jose Reyes makes his expected return tomorrow.
Castillo, who said his right calf is the ailing one, won’t play tonight in the series opener against Washington at Citi Field.
With Castillo resting, Manuel said, Tejada will play short, while Alex Cora will man second.
“I’m going to take a day,” Castillo said. “I’ve been feeling it for a couple days. I need a day.”
If the Mets have to keep Tejada, the fill-in shortstop, once Reyes returns, they will face an interesting roster predicament. They would need to make room for Reyes, and all along it figured that Tejada would be the casualty.
If Tejada is required to stay, though, the Mets would have to do something else.
They could put Castillo on the DL if his calf doesn’t improve. Beyond that, they could still demote Tejada, figuring that even if Castillo is not ready to play tomorrow, as long as he’s able to play soon after, they can get by with Reyes at short, Cora at second and Fernando Tatis as an emergency second baseman (with Cora able to move over to short if he had to replace Reyes).
The Mets would be taking a bit of a risk, though, especially since Reyes is just coming off the DL himself.
The Mets also could potentially do something like drop Frank Catalanotto from the roster, though that would seemingly be a rash decision just four games into the season. There’s also the chance of sending down a reliever, though the Mets might not want to be short in the pen — they used six relievers on Wednesday and four last night.
Castillo said he has not had any tests yet and did not seem overly worried about the injury. He’s 1-for-10 this season, with the one hit an infield single. He does have two walks.
Castillo also has a stolen base, which came Monday, when he got hurt.