Mets May Be Waiting a While For Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert to Return

The New York Mets are well below .500 and have been hit hard by the injury bug. While there is no real expectation Francisco Lindor will be back before late June, the Mets had been holding out hope that Luis Robert Jr. and Jorge Polanco could return from their injured list stints soon.

Polanco took batting practice on the field prior to Saturday's loss in Arizona as he is working his way back from wrist and Achilles injuries. Robert is not on the trip with back issues, but manager Carlos Mendoza offered an update on Sunday that didn't offer much hope either player will be back in the near future.

Robert hasn't begun any baseball activities yet, which means he is still several weeks away from a return to the lineup. As far as Polanco is concerned, Mendoza indicated that his wrist is better but he had a flare up with the bursitis issue that remains a lingering problem.

Polanco is further along than Robert in the sense that he has started baseball activities, but the bursitis issue saw him limited to DH duty in the first place. The Mets are no doubt hoping that Polanco can improve enough to serve as a DH more frequently, but he has been out so long that he will need a rehab assignment before rejoining the lineup.

Should The Mets Consider More Minor League Options To Bolster The Lineup?

With none of the Mets' injured stars set to return any time soon, the team may need to give more serious consideration to using a player from their farm system to bolster their flagging offense. David Stearns has made it clear he doesn't want to promote players without a runway to play every day, and there is plenty of runway now.

The Mets have been giving at bats to MJ Melendez, Austin Slater, Vidal Brujan and Andy Ibanez regularly because they don't have options. The Triple-A Syracuse Mets have three players who could come in now and offer help at the need areas of outfield and first base: Nick Morabito, A.J. Ewing and Ryan Clifford.

Morabito is the only one of the three on the 40-man roster now, which means he could be promoted without requiring a subsequent 40-man move. Ewing and Clifford have higher long term ceilings than Morabito, so the Mets may continue to play their development conservatively in order to avoid doing damage to them by promoting them too soon.

That balance is a delicate one to maintain with Juan Soto firmly in his prime and a lot of money invested in the current roster. There is a lot of runway left in the regular season, but the Mets are teetering on the brink of having their season be over before the summer if they can't turn things around soon.

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