Mets' Pete Alonso heads back to New York for MRI on wrist
Pete Alonso #20 of the Mets converses with manager Buck Showalter #11 and a trainer after he is hit by pitch in the first inning against Charlie Morton #50 of Atlanta at Truist Park on June 7, 2023 in Atlanta. Credit: Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox
ATLANTA — For the first time this season, Pete Alonso was absent from the Mets’ lineup Thursday — and not even in the same part of the country as the game.
The team offered no new information on Alonso’s condition or diagnosis before its series finale with Atlanta, a day after he exited after taking a fastball off his left wrist.
But following his CT scan in Atlanta in the morning, which was the previously disclosed plan, the Mets shipped Alonso back to New York for an MRI, which was a new development.
Manager Buck Showalter said he had no further update.
“You know what I know,” he said. “You want to make sure (he is OK). Talking to Pete (on Wednesday) during the game out on the field and talking to him after the game, I knew he wasn’t going to be able to play today. He’s pretty sore.”
X-rays Wednesday night were negative, leading to an initial diagnosis of a bruise. But Alonso and Showalter cautioned then that additional tests would be needed before they really knew what, if anything, was wrong.
Asked why Alonso needed to go all the way back to New York for an MRI, Showalter said: “I don’t know. I think we’d rather have our people look at it. Not that somebody doesn’t trust whoever. But our people are looking at the CT scan and everything back there. They can transfer that stuff. Obviously, he wasn’t going to play today. My hope is that he flies back to Pittsburgh tomorrow and plays for us. We just gotta make sure we know what we’re dealing with.”
Alonso has a history of hand and wrist issues, including broken bones in his left hand in 2016 and 2017.
One year ago Thursday, he missed his first game of the 2022 season with a bruised right hand, the result of getting drilled by a Yu Darvish pitch in his first at-bat the day before — an eerie echo of this season’s sequence against Charlie Morton.
“This is something that happens, unfortunately, regularly throughout my career,” Alonso said Wednesday. “That’s why I wear all the wrist guards, arm guards, trying to take all the preventative measures. I guess now I’ll be wearing another layer of padding.
“Guys throw hard. They got nasty stuff. It moves all over the place. Next time I’ll have another pad that protects more surface area.”
Extra bases
With Omar Narvaez behind the plate for the second time in three games since being activated from the injured list, Francisco Alvarez drew his first DH assignment of the season . . . The run Brooks Raley allowed Wednesday was his first in 11 appearances (nine innings) since returning from the IL . . . Showalter on the bullpen’s recent regression: “They’ve been good for periods. It’s hard work. We’ve been able to move to the load around. I don’t think anybody is overworked.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
