HARD PAIN’S GONNA FALL!
Yo strains hammy, Mike weighs knife
WASHINGTON — Yoenis Cespedes most likely has played his last game of the season. The Mets $110 million slugger left a 4-2 win over the Nationals in the first inning Friday night with a strained right hamstring and is headed to the disabled list for the second time in 2017.
And he is already focused on 2018, knowing that he has to change his offseason approach to try and stay on the field.
“I haven’t figured out what I am going to do, but obviously we all know we need to make some changes,” Cespedes said through Mets translator Melissa Strozza. “That I will do.”
After Cespedes missed 38 games earlier this season with a strained left hamstring, he came back having worked on new training, stretching and flexibility techniques to prevent the leg issues.
But Friday night was eerily familiar to Mets fans.
“It is similar in location and severity to the one on the left side. He’ll be examined Monday in New York,” Mets GM Sandy Alderson said after the game. “Until that time, we will have somebody else coming in here. He is definitely a DL. Somebody will take his spot by tomorrow afternoon.”
While the Mets and Cespedes think some of the work he did after the last injury could shorten his comeback time with this injury, the club has just 35 games remaining in a disappointing season. They have invested in the 31-yearold slugger for the next three seasons, so the smart move is probably shutting him down.
Cespedes indicated he would be careful with this injury.
“Of course I am going to work hard to get back as soon as I can, but I am not going to push myself to come back if I am not 100%,” Cespedes said.
In the first year of his big contract, Cespedes spent the majority of the offseason working with the Mets’ strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Barwis. They focused on strengthening his legs after he spent time on the DL with a right quad injury.
If Friday was his last game, Cespedes finished the season having played in 81 games, hitting .292 with 17 home runs and 42 RBI.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Cespedes admitted. “I know how much work I put into coming in ready this season. Probably more than ever and I have just had injury after injury. This one in particular was so frustrating. Right before this I felt the best I had felt all season long. It’s definitely frustrating.” It’s not frustrating just for Cespedes. He hobbled off the field — after trying to score from second on Dom Smith’s single — less than 24 hours after the Mets announced that not only had young slugger Michael Conforto suffered a dislocated shoulder, but he had torn the posterior capsule in his left shoulder. While the Mets announced Friday he would be “clinically examined” on Monday and all treatment options are on the table, it is likely he will need to have surgery.
Dr. Armin Tehrany, orthopedic surgeon, shoulder & knee specialist, and founder of Manhattan Orthopedic Care, explained this is a less common injury and one that could be a little more difficult to come back from.
“A tear in the posterior capsule could be treated conservatively, or non operatively, scar in and do very well,” said Tehrany, who has not examined Conforto but is familiar with the injury. “In the case of Conforto and in the manner he tore it though, it is unlikely to do very well without surgery.”
The surgery is not an easy one and would include an expected recovery and rehabilitation time of four to six months. That means there is a chance Conforto would not be ready for spring A training. fter so many injuries this season, this was just another punch in the gut, Terry Collins said. Friday night, the manager seemed almost numb to the onslaught.
“This is new for me, for anybody else that’s probably ever managed to have these kinds of things pop up. There is no way to describe them,” Collins said. “Except you just gotta figure out who is going to play tomorrow.”
With Cespedes and Conforto out with injuries and the Mets having traded away Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson, they will likely bring up Triple-A outfielder Travis Taijeron. An 18th-round pick in 2011, Taijeron is hitting .272 with 25 homers and 78 RBI in 125 games this season for Las Vegas.