The Mets are already dealing with injuries.
The team that faded badly in the second half after a surprisingly competitive start announced Tuesday that outfielder Lucas Duda broke his right wrist.
The Mets tweeted that Duda underwent surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan to repair his fractured right wrist which occurred, “while Duda was moving furniture last month at his apartment in Southern California.” While the Mets didn’t put a timetable on his return to baseball activities through their offical Twitter account or a statement released by the club, they did say that “Duda will be discharged from HSS [Tuesday] and is expected to be ready for Spring Training in February.”
Duda got off to a hot start last season, but was unable to sustain that success, eventually being sent to the minors for a month at the end of July. He ended the year batting .239 with 15 home runs and 57 RBIs, not exactly the production the Mets were hoping to get from their successor to Carlos Beltran in the outfield. But the Mets have had four-straight losing seasons, and have not made the playoffs since 2006.
Duda played right and left field, as well as first base, making five errors, and it was usually an adventure when a ball was hit his way. As his numbers got worse, he began platooning in the outfield.
He enters the 2013 season in a crowded outfield mix as the Mets have many options, not to mention possibly acquiring an outfielder via free agency or a trade.