Mets' Starling Marte hit in helmet, tests negative for a concussion
Starling Marte rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of preseason game against the Astros on Friday, March 10, 2023. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Starling Marte left the Mets’ 10-4 loss to the Rays in the fifth inning on Sunday after being hit on the left side of the helmet by a 93-mph fastball from righthander Elvin Rodriguez.
Marte did not go down and walked off under his own power with the assistance of a trainer. The Mets said he tested negative for a concussion and will be re-evaluated on Monday.
“May have gotten lucky,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Hope so. Thank goodness for the helmet.”
Marte made his spring training debut on Friday after double groin surgery in the offseason.
He missed the final month of the regular season in 2022 after being hit by a pitch on Sept. 6 and suffering a fractured right middle finger. He returned for the Mets’ NL Wild Card Series loss to San Diego.
The Mets were hit an MLB-high 112 times in 2022. The Giants were next at 95.
Senga downplays injury
Mets righthander Kodai Senga, who was scratched from his start on Saturday night with tendinitis at the base of his right index finger, said on Sunday that he would have pitched if it had been a regular-season game.
When asked if he expects to be ready for the season, Senga responded, “For sure.”
Still, Showalter sounded a note of caution about the “day-to-day” nature of Senga’s injury, which the Mets believe was caused by the difference between MLB baseballs and the smaller, tackier balls that are used in Japan.
“It shouldn’t be very long, I hope,” Showalter said. “It’s precautionary, but we know how that goes sometimes. Initially it’s precautionary and you just don’t know where it ends up. But I think in the near future when he takes a workday, [after] he comes out of that, then we can map out when he goes [back into the rotation]. [Monday’s] a big day. See how everything, some of the treatment things they’re doing with him, brings it around.”
Senga, through an interpreter, said the sore finger “is just something that’s been lingering for a little while now. So it’s not like I suddenly feel bad or it’s gotten worse.”
Senga said MLB baseballs “are known to be a little bit more slippery. I think subconsciously I might have been gripping it a little bit tighter.”
The Mets already were without one starter in lefthander Jose Quintana, who underwent testing in New York last week for what the Mets are calling a rib stress fracture.
General manager Billy Eppler said he doesn’t expect to issue an update until Wednesday, as the Mets are still conferring with doctors about the injury.
Time after time
In noting that multiple violations of the pitch clock rule have been called in spring training, Showalter said he thinks one aspect of the new rule has not received much attention: The skill, accuracy and consistency of the person resetting the clock before each pitch.
Showalter said people are joking about it now but added, “It’s not going to be funny in about 10 days. The clock started too early [on Saturday] about six times. The clock operator’s going to be important because we were seeing every place we go, some are real tight with it and some are real loose with it.”
On another clock matter, Showalter said he and his coaches had a text chain going so no one would forget to turn their clocks ahead an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Showalter said no coaches or players were late to report as the oft-reviled Daylight Savings Time began.
“Are they going to do away with that?” Showalter asked of the practice of changing clocks twice a year in most states.
There is a bill before the U.S. Senate that would make daylight savings permanent. But the same bill failed last year.
Extra bases
Darryl Strawberry, who debuted with the Mets when he was 21 in 1983, turned 61 on Sunday . . . Former Mets first baseman Ed Kranepool visited the clubhouse before Sunday’s game against the Rays.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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