Starling Marte exits Mets' loss early, will sit Sunday and get MRI on knee Monday
New York Mets' Starling Marte scores during the third inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Chicago. Credit: AP/Matt Marton
CHICAGO — Starling Marte’s prolonged right knee issue is going to get a more careful look.
After Marte left the Mets’ 8-1 loss to the Cubs in the second inning on Saturday at Wrigley Field, the team said he will sit out Sunday and get an MRI on Monday.
For the past few weeks, as Marte has played through the knee soreness and received extra days off to manage it, the Mets have not sent him for tests. But it has lasted long enough for them to decide they need to figure out what’s going on in there.
Neither Marte nor manager Carlos Mendoza ruled out a trip to the injured list. They’ll know more after he sees a doctor.
“It’s obviously something to worry about,” Marte said through an interpreter. “I tried to go out there and play, but I thought the best thing to do was to get out of the game . . . It’s one of those things where one day it’s bad, other days not so much. But it’s something that we’ve been battling with. [Saturday] was one of those days where it hurt more than most days.”
Mendoza said: “He’s been telling us, ‘Let’s keep getting treatment on it [and not get an MRI].’ There’s days when it feels good, but today wasn’t as good. Obviously, before the game, he mentioned something to me. He said, ‘I can get going,’ but after that first at-bat, he came up and we thought it was best to get him out.”
Marte has been a solidly above-average hitter, batting .278 with a .744 OPS, even as his defensive numbers have taken a steep dive. All along, the Mets have sought to manage Marte’s workload after core/leg problems plagued him the previous two years.
He said this is the first time he has had trouble with a knee.
“I thought we’ve been doing a pretty good job, especially with our communication with him and him being honest with me and all of us,” Mendoza said. “We’ll see what we’re dealing with here. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and in a couple of days he’ll be back there. But we just gotta wait.”
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.