SAN DIEGO — The Mets believe they have “dodged a bullet” when it comes to Juan Soto and his injured foot.
Soto was out of the lineup Wednesday afternoon for the series finale against the San Diego Padres, one day after leaving the game with a foot contusion. The star slugger fouled a pitch off the top of his right foot, but imaging showed no breaks or fractures. Soto received treatment Wednesday morning with the hopes of being able to come off the bench.
Should he be unable to play against his former team, the Mets are confident that he’ll be back in the lineup Friday since the team is off Thursday.
“Right now, talking to Juan, just looking at his face and things like that,” I think we dodged a bullet here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Wednesday at Petco Park.
Jeff McNeil played right field in place of Soto in the third of three games against the Padres. The Mets, who are once again using Brandon Nimmo in the leadoff spot, put Mark Vientos in the No. 2 spot and moved Francisco Lindor down to No. 3 in the order in Soto’s place, ahead of Pete Alonso.
Soto had a wrap on his foot before the game, but was not wearing a walking boot or any sort of brace. Right after the injury occurred, he finished the at-bat, but pushing off the foot to run the bases was painful.
“Last night walking out of here, it was sore just to walk,” Mendoza said. “He hasn’t done anything baseball activity-related, so yeah, we’ll see what we’ve got.”
The training staff numbed his foot Tuesday night. The goal is to get the swelling down so he can wear a shoe, swing at full strength and run the bases.
Soto did not seem overly concerned.
“I think it’s going to be good,” he said. “We’ve just got to get the swelling down. Whenever the swelling goes down, I think we’re going to be fine.”
TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE
One day before the deadline, the message from Mendoza to his team is to stay offline.
“I try to tell them not to read everything,” the Mets second-year skipper said. “I tell them don’t believe everything they read because there’s so much going on. Everybody is getting traded and everyone is interested in every player.”
Some players are better at staying off social media than others, and many simply rely on their agents to give them the most accurate, up-to-date information. Sometimes it’s less about the players and their future, and more about the information they want to pass on to their wives, who often have to do most of the heavy lifting. The wives and girlfriends are tasked with packing up the kids, pets and houses to go to a new location.
So far, this pre-deadline period has been relatively slow, but it’s expected to pick up Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Mendoza is comfortable with the roster the way it’s currently constructed.
“Got a game to win today and an off day tomorrow,” Mendoza said. “I’ll be with my phone waiting for something. If not, we keep going.”
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