Perhaps lost in the various trade deadline moves the Mets made was the transfer of Jesse Winker to the 60-day IL.
While this sort of move is a paper one, and this does allow Cedric Mullins to be added to the roster, it also means the Mets won't see Winker back on the team until September at the earliest.
Winker, placed on the IL in mid-July with back inflammation, has seen his 2025 injury-riddled. The veteran slugger has appeared in just 26 games this year, and while there's optimism he will return before the end of the season, president of baseball operations David Stearns provided an update that justified the 60-day designation.
"We still have some hope he’ll be back at some point this season, but clearly this has taken a little bit longer than we originally appreciated," Stearns said during his post-deadline Zoom call. "Wink go an epidural. We’ve seen progress since then, but not at the pace he or we were hoping. So the 60-day IL timeframe lined up. Not closing the door on this season, but it’s not going to be August."
Alongside right-handed hitting Starling Marte, Winker was the pairing the Mets were looking to use in the DH spot this season. But with Winker down for most of the season, the team has had to look elsewhere for left-handed at-bats. Mullins fit that profile while also playing elite defense, so he was a natural fit and a target before Winker's diagnosis, but Stearns admitted his slugger's slow recovery pushed him to get a left-handed bat at the deadline.
"[Winker's injury] played into it or was a part of it. We were looking at this segment of the market even before this direction for Wink became clear," Stearns said. "But certainly as it became evident that Wink’s absence was going to be longer, it made us look even harder at this segment, especially left-handed bats."
Now that Mullins is in the fold, and none of the Mets' young infielders (Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Luisangel Acuna) were traded, where and how will the lineup be configured?
Jeff McNeil, who was platooning with Tyrone Taylor in center field, will continue to have his bat in the lineup more often than not, but with the addition of Mullins, will not be needed in center as often.
"We’ll work through that. Jeff’s still going to play a lot, he’s swinging the bat very well. There will be outfield opportunities at times, 2B opportunities, probably going to be DH at-bats. For our left-handed hitters, there will be ample opportunity for all of them. It’s just finding where the pieces fit on each day in the lineup."
On that same vein, with McNeil likely playing the bulk of his games at second, that leaves fewer opportunities for those young infielders. Stearns said he's confident that Mendoza will be able to balance the lineup and find ways for all the infielders to get time on the field.
"The good news is, there are a lot of at-bats to go around," he said. "When you talk about a couple of Infield positions, an outfield position, DH at-bats, there’s a lot of bats to go around. All those guys are going to get plenty of time. Is there going to be one or two guys on the bench each day? Yea. And then they’ll probably gonna get a leverage at-bat, or pinch-hit later in the game. Mendy does a great job of figuring out which guys for the lineup based on who we’re facing… We’ll continue to do that."
Update on Jose Siri
While talking about Winker, Stearns was asked about Siri and whether they expect him to return this season.
"With Jose, still possible," Stearns said. "Wouldn’t write it off but we need a little bit more news or an update to see what the timeline is for him to progress."
Siri will get an update on his recovery in 7-10 days and then the Mets will have a better idea.
The first-year Met went down in April with a left tibia fracture and has yet to see the field. He's played in just 10 games this season.
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