It’s only 27 weeks until pitchers and catchers report to spring training for the Mets.
There is no other realistic way to view the situation after yesterday’s confluence of events left the Mets without their two most consistent hitters and all but dead in the wild-card race.
Daniel Murphy’s season is over, a major league source confirmed last night, after his left knee was crushed at second base by sliding Jose Constanza, and Jose Reyes appears headed back to the disabled list with a strained left hamstring sustained earlier in the Mets’ 6-5 loss to the Braves at Citi Field.
An MRI exam revealed that Murphy sustained a torn medial collateral ligament in the knee, according to the source, and Reyes has a “mild” strain of the hamstring — essentially the same injury that cost him 12 games on the disabled list last month.
It’s just the latest blow for a team that has been without Ike Davis (ankle) for most of the season and lost David Wright for two months to a stress fracture in his lower back. Murphy had emerged as a consistent force in the Mets’ lineup, batting .320 with six homers and 49 RBIs.
Lucas Duda will become the starting first baseman, and manager Terry Collins is expected to employ a platoon of Scott Hairston and Willie Harris in right field. Ruben Tejada will be summoned from Triple-A Buffalo to play shortstop in Reyes’ absence, though the team is still deciding whether or not to place Reyes on the DL.
Reyes incurred the latest hamstring tightness running to first base in yesterday’s first inning. He was removed for a pinch hitter the following inning.
“We’ve been struggling offensively as it is,” Wright said after the Mets lost for the sixth time in seven games and fell nine games behind Atlanta in the NL wild-card race. “Now we lose a guy hitting .336 and another hitting .320. Obviously it’s a big hurdle to overcome. We know it’s going to be a tremendous uphill battle to score runs.”
Murphy had been inserted at second base because Justin Turner was needed at shortstop to replace Reyes, and second baseman Willie Harris was removed before the seventh as part of a double switch. On the fateful play, Constanza was attempting to steal second and drilled Murphy’s left knee in the process. The knee buckled, and Murphy dropped to the ground in obvious pain.
“I was sick to my stomach for Murph,” Collins said. “He just kept saying, ‘Get me off the field.’ That’s all he kept saying.”
The Mets said Constanza’s slide was clean. If the organization had any ideas of making Murphy a full-time second baseman in the future, that plan is probably dead: Murphy missed most of last season after a collision, while he was playing second base for Triple-A Buffalo, tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
“You feel for Murph because you know how much he cares and wants to be here,” Wright said. “You know how hard he’s worked.”
No one can accuse the Mets (56-57), who shuffled their defensive alignment throughout the final 2 2/3 innings, of rolling over: Angel Pagan’s RBI double in the bottom of the seventh tied the game, after the Braves had grabbed a 5-2 lead in the fifth. But Parnell allowed a leadoff single to Alex Gonzalez in the ninth. After a sacrifice bunt by Constanza and walk to Eric Hinske, the Braves took the lead on Chipper Jones’ RBI single.
“We just have to try our best to keep the train going and play fundamental baseball,” Hairston said, admitting the Mets will need to scrap for runs without Reyes and Murphy. “We have the talent here to still compete.”