MET NOTES DENVER – Bobby Bonilla’s woes continue.
The struggling and injured Met outfielder was placed on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with a severe contusion of the left knee.
The Mets brought up another portly outfielder, Benny Agbayani, from Triple-A Norfolk to take Bonilla’s place on the roster.
Bonilla joins left fielder Rickey Henderson on the DL.
Bonilla was hit by a Pedro Astacio fastball in the second inning Monday night – a pitch Bonilla seemed at the time to think was intended to hit him in retaliation for an Al Leiter pitch that hit Larry Walker a half-inning before.
“I have no comment on that,” Bonilla said, while at the same time making it clear he still wasn’t willing to forget it.
Yesterday the swelling had gone down considerably, but Bonilla still had an ugly purple and red welt on the inside of the left knee, about the size of a 93 mph Astacio fastball.
“Oh, it was a pretty good fastball,” Bonilla said.
Met GM Steve Phillips said placing Bonilla on the DL was as much about his previously injured right knee as the left one.
The concern was that if he were playing on two injured knees, he might favor one and re-injure the other.
“It’s about both knees,” Phillips said.
Bonilla is going through possibly his worst stretch as a professional, considering he started the season by recovering from a torn posterior cruciate ligament in the left knee, an injury incurred in spring training.
He has struggled terribly at the plate, hitting only .157 in 70 at-bats and being moved down to seventh in the batting order behind Brian McRae, who was hitting .204 going into last night’s game.
Agbayani, who was put into the lineup in left field last night, was batting sixth, ahead of McRae.
“This is the most [frustrating],” Bonilla said. “I don’t think I’ve gone through anything like this. … Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. I can take my time, and when I come back maybe my other knee will be fine.”
In the meantime, the Mets are hoping Agbayani can do the job even better than the highly paid Bonilla, which shouldn’t bee too hard.
In 28 games for Norfolk, the 6-foot-0, 225-pound native of Hawaii hit .356 with eight home runs and 32 RBIs. Agbayani was up with the Mets three times last year, playing in only two games and going 2-for-15.
Agbayani wears No. 50, like Sid Fernandez before him, in honor of his home state, the 50th in the union. *The Mets made it official late Monday night, naming Rick Reed to pitch in place of the struggling Orel Hershiser today at Coors Field. Although he is available for bullpen duty, Hershiser wasn’t warming up in there Monday night to come into the game. He just needed the side work. *Mets had home runs from Luis Lopez and Jermaine Allensworth on Monday.