On Thursday, New York Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera left the game against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning due to what the team is calling a sore left knee. The Mets will be hoping the injury is not serious because they are one of the favorites to win the World Series according to MLB predictions, and the team wouldn’t want to lose one of their top free agents before the season even starts.
Cabrera’s injury occurred after the Cardinals gave up a walk to Lucas Duda. After the walk, Cabrera called manager Terry Collins and team trainer Ray Ramirez to second base and was immediately removed from the game.
After the game, Cabrera said his knee was sore, but he did not believe it was anything serious. Cabrera told reporters that he had never had a problem with the knee in the past, but indicated that he would have an X-ray on Thursdayafternoon to make sure there is no damage to the knee.
“I’m walking fine,” he said. “I’ve got to go to my X-ray and see what we’ve got.”
Before being removed from the game, Cabrera had a single in the first inning off Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia. After Cabrera’s hit, Yoenis Cespedes was at the plate and hit a fly out. When Cardinals center fielder Thomas Pham didn’t show a sense of urgency returning the ball to the infield, Cabrera took advantage and easily stole second base. While he was approaching second base, Cabrera pulled up lame.
Cabrera said he was running to the plate and was planning to slide into second base, but when he saw the bad throw from Pham, he decided to stay up instead. As he was running towards second base, he felt something in his knee, which quickly became sore.
Collins inserted Ruben Tejada into the game to take Cabrera’s place and Tejada ended up hitting a game-tying homerun in the fifth inning.
Cabrera’s injury means Collins has a tough decision to make before the start of the regular season. Tejada has played very well during spring training, and by all accounts, should be the team’s opening day roster.
When the team is healthy, Tejada is the odd man out, which has led to speculation that the Mets will trade him before the season opener. Collins has to decide whether to keep Tejada on the roster in case there is an injury in the outfield or trade him away, which will leave the Mets without much outfield depth.
If the Mets do decide to trade Tejada, the St. Louis Cardinals are considered to be one of the teams most interested in his services. The Cardinals lost Jhonny Peralta to an injury that will sideline him until after the All-Star break, so they need someone who can fill in until Peralta recovers from his injury.
Since the Mets haven’t made up their mind on Tejada’s future with the team, they have not officially put him on the trading block, they are entertaining offers from other teams.
The ideal scenario for the Mets would be to keep Tejada on the team roster for the entire season, but since he is scheduled to make $3 million this season, chances are he will be traded at some point this season.
