JUPITER, Fla. — Daniel Murphy’s rehab from a pulled right hamstring isn’t going as smoothly as the Mets would like.
Manager Terry Collins admitted Friday the second baseman again is in jeopardy of beginning the season on the disabled list, because his workouts haven’t progressed in a timely manner.
“He’s running out of time,” Collins said. “We don’t have a lot of time to get him ready.”
Collins wouldn’t divulge the extent of Murphy’s most recent workout. But the Mets had hoped Murphy would begin taking at-bats in minor-league exhibition games this weekend. That now seems unlikely.
“He’s trying to be cautious a little bit, and I totally understand that,” Collins said. “We don’t want to re-do it and we’ve got to get him some at-bats and we’re running out of days for that.”
Collins is more concerned about Murphy building up his leg strength than finding his hitting stroke.
“It has reached the point now where we’ve got to start building him up so he doesn’t enter the season so fatigued that we’re worried about him playing five or six innings with his legs not there,” Collins said. “That’s where I am most concerned. This game is about your legs and Murph has got a leg issue. If he can’t play any innings I don’t know how he can build his leg strength up.”
The Mets intend to limit Murphy to minor league games once he is ready to play. Such a maneuver would allow the club to backdate a potential disabled list stint. Murphy then would have to miss only the first six days of the season instead of 15.
Matt Reynolds and Danny Muno are competing for a roster spot should Murphy not be ready for the season opener on April 6.
Jenrry Mejia allowed three earned runs over two-thirds of an inning in the Mets’ 5-4 loss to the Cardinals. It was Mejia’s first time pitching on consecutive days this spring.
“I think a lot of those guys are starting to run through that whole stage where that dead arm stage with them is starting to take place,” Collins said. “But you’ve got to go through it and go through it now, because you don’t want to have it happen during the season.”
Lefty Sean Gilmartin retired the only batter he faced for his fourth straight scoreless appearance.