Just Mets

Daniel Murphy was cleared to resume baseball activities earlier this week after pulling his hamstring in a game last week, and was expected to play on the minor league side this weekend.

The expectation was Murphy was still on target for Opening Day despite the injury, having experienced no issues since returning to the field.

However, after Friday’s 5-4 loss, both Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson expressed concern to reporters there might not be enough time for Murphy to be ready for Opening Day.

“For him to come back sooner than roughly Opening Day would be a little surprising. But…it’s still a possibility,” Alderson said, according to Mike Vorkunov of the Star Ledger.

Alderson had previously said if Murphy starts the year on the disabled list, his replacement would be either Matt Reynolds or Daniel Muno, neither of which are on the 40-man roster. Alderson repeated that once again on Friday.

Both deserve the job, for sure – they’ve both had fantastic camps. But if Reynolds is going to be considered, he probably needs to start playing second base in these remaining games. I could see Terry splitting their time evenly down the stretch of camp, or maybe one or the other playing in minor league or simulated games just to keep getting consistent reps. But, it’s also important these guys work with Wilmer Flores on communication, double plays, and so on.

Clearly, this isn’t an easy issue for the Mets to solve.

As for Murphy, no matter how much he progresses, he’s is unlikely to appear in a big league game through the remainder of Spring Training. That way, if he has to start the year on the disabled list, they can backdate his stint to ten days before Opening Day, meaning he could return by the first weekend of the season.

However, if he plays in a big league game and reinjures his hamstring at any time between now and Opening Day, a stint on the disabled list would begin on the day of the re-injury.