Mets injury news: Cuddyer to have MRI on sore knee

Michael Cuddyer exited Tuesday night’s New York Mets game prior to the seventh inning due to a sore left knee and said after the game that he was “definitely concerned” about it.

Cuddyer, who will have an MRI on Wednesday, said that the knee started to bother him when he was running out a grounder in the first inning, and that it tightened up as the game went along.

After the top of the sixth, Cuddyer told manager Terry Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez that the knee was bothering him and was immediately removed from the game.

Darrell Ceciliani replaced Cuddyer in left field.

Thoughts:

Cuddyer has just two hits in his last 28 at bats, and has seen his triple slash dip to .243/.297/.365.

While Cuddyer has been performing extremely poorly at the plate, another injury to a key player is something the Mets can’t really afford at the moment, with David Wright out indefinitely and Travis d’Arnaud out for at least another week due to a sprained left elbow.

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If Cuddyer is placed on the disabled list, the outfielders in Triple-A who could replace him are underwhelming. And none of them are on the 40-man roster.

The Mets could turn to Alex Castellanos, a journeyman who had a cup of coffee with the Dodgers in both 2012 and 2013. They could go with Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was hitting under .100 before he was designated for assignment, or they could call up Travis Taijeron.

Jumping down a level in the minors, both Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo — both 22 years old and not on the 40-man roster — are with Double-A Binghamton.

Conforto has a shade over 100 at bats so far with Binghamton and entered Tuesday night’s game hitting .320/.414/.510. While calling up Conforto is tempting, he needs more time in Double-A and had been struggling lately before hitting a two-run homer on Tuesday.

Nimmo, who is arguably not as polished as Conforto, has already amassed close to 500 at bats in Binghamton between 2014 and 2015. Entering Tuesday night, Nimmo was hitting .298/.363/.409 with two home runs and 11 RBI in 45 games played.

While Conforto is viewed as the better prospect long term and has a college career under his belt, it’s Nimmo who has surpassed the at bat threshold the Mets usually ask their prospects to reach.

The Mets don’t often jump players past Triple-A, but they did it with Dilson Herrera last season when he was more raw than Nimmo is at the moment.

Regardless of who the Mets call up, if the injury to Cuddyer is serious, what they should really be doing is making a trade for an established outfielder to come in and hopefully stabilize the lineup. However, nothing Sandy Alderson has done thus far leads me to believe a trade of any significance will be made.