Mets place Reyes on 15-day DL

LOS ANGELES -- The Mets were forced to do the unthinkable Thursday when they finally relented and placed Jose Reyes on the 15-day disabled list with a Grade 1 strain of his left hamstring.

It was not something that anyone involved with the Mets wanted to do. Not Reyes, not GM Sandy Alderson and certainly not manager Terry Collins, who now must endure the most crucial stretch of the season without his MVP candidate.

But ultimately, caution prevailed. Given Reyes' history of leg issues and the potential for catastrophe if the hamstring became worse, everyone agreed that this was the best course of action.

"It came down to what's the most important -- three games or the next 50?" Collins said. "And this guy's whole game is about his legs and what his legs bring to the game. We all felt that it was going to be another five or six or seven or eight days anyway, so we tried to ease everybody's mind -- including his."

As for those 50 games, Alderson fully expects Reyes to be playing them in a Mets uniform. Despite an agreement with his agents to wait until the end of the season for contract negotiations, Alderson has no intention of dealing him before then. "I think it's very unlikely Jose will be traded this season," Alderson said. "And that's without regard to his injury."

The Mets were holding out hope that Reyes could be ready for the start of the second half, when the Mets host the Phillies at Citi Field. But after having the doctors re-examine his MRI images -- including Daniel E. Cooper, the Dallas-based specialist who did his 2009 surgery -- they opted for the DL.

"It's disappointing," Reyes said. "I want to be on the field. But it's part of the game. It just happens."

The move is retroactive to July 3, so Reyes will be eligible to return on July 18, which is the opener of a home series against the Marlins. Collins said it is more realistic that Reyes comes back for the road trip to Florida on July 22, but Alderson refused to speculate on a date. "I'm not thinking beyond the 15-day DL," Alderson said. "Right now that's what we have to live with and we go from there. There's the physical rehabilitation process and there's the baseball activity part of the process. Right now it's hard to tell when that baseball activity will start. We'll have to wait and see."

It also means that Reyes will be a spectator rather than a starter for Tuesday's All-Star Game in Phoenix. This is Reyes' fourth All-Star appearance, but he has played in only one Midsummer Classic, in 2007, because of injuries. The plan is for him to stay with the Mets through the weekend in San Francisco, travel to Arizona for the All-Star festivities and then return to New York for treatment on Wednesday.

"The fans, they voted for me to be in the starting lineup and I want to be there to play for them," Reyes said. "But when you're hurt, there's nothing you can do about it. Just go there and try to enjoy it anyway."

The bottom line is that Reyes' condition wasn't improving quickly enough to leave him off the DL. While he took batting practice and did some stationary fielding drills earlier in the week, Reyes never graduated to running, and that was a red flag.

"It was based on the fact that he wasn't making any progress," Alderson said. "It forced us to be more realistic about what's typical in these cases. The nature of the diagnosis didn't change. Rest in this case is probably as therapeutic as anything."

But that's small comfort for the Mets as they cling to the outer edge of the wild-card race. Reyes has been an offensive force this season, and the engine of this overachieving team, so Thursday's development was a sobering -- if not totally unexpected -- blow.

"Obviously, the fact that we've played so well and won games makes it a little easier," Collins said. "It doesn't help the matter that he's not in the lineup. We're in a situation where each and every game is very very important to us right now as we head into the middle of the summer. These games are huge and we need him back in the lineup, and that's why I couldn't put him in there until I know he's 100 percent."