2023<\/a>, they have to keep him healthy and play it slow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cThe tools are there,\u201d Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Robert, who has missed 114 games over the last two seasons. \u201cElite power, the defense, the speed. When he\u2019s healthy, we saw it in 2023, a lot of the things he can do. We gotta keep him healthy and we\u2019re going to be proactive\u2026 He has a chance to do something special here.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means he will not be playing in any spring training games \u201cout of the gate,\u201d and instead is focusing on building up the strength of his lower half. He has been largely plagued by hamstring and groin injuries throughout his career, but is currently deemed \u201c100%\u201d healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that when we traded for him, our trainers put their hands on it and identified some of the things, especially in the lower half, that need to be strengthened up,\u201d Mendoza continued. \u201cHe\u2019s going through full workouts, he\u2019s going to get live at-bats, but as far as putting him in game settings when he has to be a full-go, like beat out a groundball, we don\u2019t want to put him out of the gate. So he\u2019s going to be on a progression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendoza and the Mets are taking slow spring progressions with a few others, including catcher Francisco Alvarez after an injury-riddled 2025 season, and the newly-acquired Jorge Polanco, who underwent knee surgery in October of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both will likely be unavailable for the first week of spring games.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Utility man Brett Baty felt something in his right hamstring roughly two weeks ago, per Mendoza, meaning he will also be slowly ramped up during the exhibition slate.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through his conditioning and training at home, while sprinting, he felt something and reported it right away,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe\u2019s in a good spot now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Once perceived as the franchise third baseman, Baty is now expected to accrue his at-bats while backing up Bo Bichette at third base, Marcus Semien at second, Polanco at first, and \u2014 if things go to plan \u2014 Carson Benge in right field.<\/p>\n
For more on the Mets, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jul 30, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (88) hits a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[20912,37403,23560,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-474389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-brett-baty","9":"tag-luis-robert-jr","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Luis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/luis-robert-mets-trade.jpg\" "\\"Mets")
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