Eduardo Escobar is still not 100 percent, and the Mets kept him out of the starting lineup on Tuesday in favor of Deven Marrero.
Escobar hurt his oblique in the team’s game on Friday night, was kept out of the starting nine on Saturday and Sunday, and likely wouldn’t have played on Monday if not for Luis Guillorme’s subsequent groin injury.
Guillorme got hurt on Sunday, and with the Mets having to immediately fly into Atlanta, they put Escobar back out there at third base on Monday. He went 0-for-4 with an RBI groundout and committed an error that jump-started Atlanta’s eight-run sixth inning.
“Defensively, I felt fine,” Escobar said following Monday’s game. “That’s something that we worked on all day [on Monday]. We really prepared for that. Thank God, every ground ball that was hit to me, I felt fine. On the throws, I felt fine.”
His oblique injury is on his left side, which creates a problem when he tries to hit right-handed. When he faced Braves’ lefty Danny Young on Monday, the switch-hitting Escobar elected to bat from the left side, creating a matchup disadvantage but perhaps saving him from more pain.
“The only part that I really feel uncomfortable with is swinging from the right side,” Escobar said.
The Mets had Escobar run through some drills before Tuesday’s game before determining that he was not fit to start, though Showalter said “he can still do some things for us,” likely indicating that Escobar would be available to pinch hit left-handed if the situation called for it.
“He’s still limited with a couple of things,” Showalter said.
With Guillorme on the 10-day injured list, Marrero is the only other true third base option on the active roster. He was called up from Triple-A on Monday. Marrero isn’t exactly an inspiring choice, as he’s a 31-year-old who had an 86 wRC+ for Syracuse at the time of his promotion. Marrero began the 2022 season playing independent ball for the Long Island Ducks.
According to multiple reports, highly-touted prospect Brett Baty will join the Mets in Atlanta on Wednesday. On Monday, Buck Showalter told reporters that neither Baty nor fellow prospect Mark Vientos were in the running for a big-league call up.
When asked directly about Baty on Tuesday, Showalter was coy.
“Why don’t you let me think about that and we’ll talk about it [on Wednesday] once I’ve given it some consideration?” Showalter said. “We like what’s going on down there. There’s a lot of guys having good years and making progress. We’ll see what the new sunrise brings.”
CARRASCO TO THE INJURED LIST
Carlos Carrasco was placed on the 15-day IL due to a low-grade strain in his left oblique. The Mets estimate his recovery timetable to be about three to four weeks.
“Carlos got the test back, it’s actually pretty good news,” Showalter offered optimistically. “Grade 1 (strain), that’s good news. We thought it could have been something a little deeper. We hope it’s not as long as some of those things take, we’ll see.”
Carrasco left Monday’s game after two innings, which were interrupted by a rain delay. On his way into the tunnel after the second, he could be seen grabbing at his oblique.
“I actually look at it as, maybe, an opportunity to freshen him up arm-wise,” Showalter said. “I think he’s exceeded the things that we thought he might do.”
Stephen Nogosek was brought up from Syracuse to replace Carrasco. Nogosek has pitched in nine games for the Mets this season with a 2.30 ERA. Additionally, the Mets made a right-handed reliever swap. Adonis Medina was optioned to Triple-A while R.J. Alvarez was called up. Alvarez last pitched in the big leagues in 2015 with Oakland. He posted a 3.38 ERA and 22.3% strikeout rate in 29 games for Syracuse this year, all of which were out of the bullpen.
In the final roster move of the day, outfielder Nick Plummer was designated for assignment.
PLANNING THE ROTATION
Showalter was questioned about David Peterson, who is not technically on the active roster after being optioned to Triple-A on Aug. 6, but is with the team in Atlanta. He seems like the obvious candidate to get called up and take Carrasco’s turns in the rotation, but Showalter said that’s not set in stone.
“I’m not going to commit totally to that. I know we’re going to take Trevor Williams out [of consideration to pitch]. He could probably play short [on Tuesday] if we had to. But we’d really like to get him a good, lengthy work day to set him up to throw more innings. He’s probably going to make one of those starts in the doubleheader [on Saturday in Philadelphia]. We’ll try to manage through that.”
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