The Mets’ west-coast swing has encountered some turbulence, but they got some good news at the very end of it.
Veteran slugger JD Martinez is expected to make his Mets debut on Friday barring any setbacks in his final rehab game Wednesday, manager Carlos Mendoza said before his team’s series finale in San Francisco against the Giants.
“He’s got to get through today,” Mendoza said (h/t SNY). “Obviously, he came out of [Tuesday’s game] feeling good, no issues. He’s in the lineup again today. If that’s the case, then the hope is to have him in the lineup on Friday.
The 36-year-old’s delayed start to the 2024 season, which was expected when he signed a one-year, $12 million to join New York a week before Opening Day, hit an additional hitch when he encountered a lower-back issue.
He was shut down for roughly one week and was given an injection to help with the stiffness — something that the Los Angeles Dodgers had done last year while Martinez put together an All-Star campaign featuring a slash line of .271/.321/.572 (.893 OPS) with 33 home runs and 103 RBI.
“I think as he’s gotten going, he ran into the same level of back stiffness that plagued him over a couple different points in his career,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said last Tuesday. “He was pretty confident with the way the Dodgers treated it last year really helped him out… so we opted to treat it the same way.”
Martinez joined New York’s Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse this week to finish the final legs of his rehab, which included an RBI single on Tuesday. Should his final test go smoothly on Wednesday, Martinez will be in the Mets’ lineup for their series opener on Friday at Citi Field against the St. Louis Cardinals where he will bat behind Pete Alonso.
In his absence, the Mets leaned on DJ Stewart and Starling Marte for DH at-bats. A hot streak of 12 wins in 15 games following a dreadful 0-5 start quieted the shouts for Martinez’s return to come sooner rather than later, but New York had lost three straight entering Wednesday afternoon’s game in San Francisco while scoring a combined three runs.
