Daniel Murphy takes BP, says hand is fine; Lucas Duda eyes BP for Monday

Daniel Murphy, who left Friday’s game after being hit in the right hand by a David Price fastball, took batting practice on Sunday and said afterwards that his hand felt okay.

After being hit on Friday, Murphy was diagnosed with a contusion and later had an X-ray that showed no damage to the hand.

The Mets have not yet said when Murphy will return to the lineup, but it’s fair to assume he’ll be back in game action at some point in the next week.

Lucas Duda, dealing with a left intercostal injury, recently took swings off a tee and off short tosses, and is eying Monday for his first official batting practice session since shutting it down over three weeks ago.

If all goes well, Duda is planning to return to the lineup on Friday.

Duda has been partaking in other drills while working his way back to facing live pitching.

Thoughts:

Daniel Murphy and Lucas Duda are the only notable Mets dealing with anything more than nagging injuries this Spring Training – a nice change from year’s past, when the Mets seemingly had a new injury pop up every other day.

The Mets are clearly being extremely cautious with Duda, and at this point in Spring Training, that makes all the sense in the world.

As far as Murphy, since he’s simply dealing with a bruise, his return likely hinges on his pain threshold.

Both Duda and Murphy could be back in game action by the end of the week – with Duda aiming for a Friday return – which would give them both nearly a month to get in gear in preparation for the regular season.