Mets 2017 Season Preview: Will the Mets stay healthy? First player on the DL?

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Darren Martino, Staff Writer

To say health is crucial for the Mets to succeed in 2017 is an understatement. You will hear it again and again this spring from local and national analysts alike, the Mets need to stay healthy.

Of course the team needs to stay healthy. Any team can say that, but injuries do happen. I fully expect for each Mets pitcher to have scares here and there but this notion that each starter must make 30 starts each for the Mets to have a chance, is preposterous.

This team has never been so deep with major league talent and if the Mets need to tap into that depth along the way, that is what it is there for. What the Mets need to stay away from are the big injuries, the kinds that cripple teams. Those types of injuries are the ones that they faced in 2016 repeatedly. And they still made the playoffs.

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Quad strains, dead arm, and hamstring pulls are things that naturally happen over the course of the season. Tommy-John, bone spurs, fractures and generally anything else that requires surgery, can derail a season. If the Mets limit their injuries to the prior, they have enough depth to overcome most any short-term DL-stint.

David Wright’s health is excluded from this conversation because the Mets have already prepared for him to not be available. With that said, the obvious choice for first to land on the DL is Wright. His career has become the equivalent of a Greek tragedy. For every mountain he climbs, a new obstacle is laid in his path.

Considering that Wright has already been shut down from any throwing with the season only a few weeks away, who else is more likely to be put on the DL? If I had to pick that someone else, the next most likely to be on the DL would have to be Lucas Duda.

Duda has already complained about hip soreness after missing more than half of the season with a stress fracture in his back. The back can cause pain in the different body parts including the hips. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if Duda sees some other related issues elsewhere in his body over the course of the year.

Again, while the Mets need healthy players, they can withstand some bumps in the road because of their depth. The key will be to have a healthy squad heading into October. Bumps in the road can be driven over in the long stretches of the season, but if they are in the middle of the off-ramp to the playoffs, the car might lose control.