One day later, reliever Drew Smith reiterated that he believes he ‘dodged a bullet” when he dislocated his pinky trying to field a J.T. Realmuto comebacker with his bare hand in the seventh inning Sunday night against the Phillies.
“It could have been a lot worse. So I’m thankful that it’s just a dislocation, not a break,” Smith said, before adding that “as of right now,” he doesn’t expect to be assigned to the injured list. “Escaped with nothing too serious … so hopefully I don’t miss any time.
“They’re gonna try and give me a day or two, but hopefully by [Tuesday] I should be good to go.”
Mets outfielder Travis Jankowski was back in the home clubhouse on Monday, insisting that he doesn’t plan to change the way he plays after suffering a fractured finger while making a diving catch last week in San Francisco.
Jankowksi will have his cast removed Tuesday and be replaced by a removable splint after having two screws inserted during surgery to repair his left fourth metacarpal. The Mets have said the Stony Brook University product is expected to be sidelined for up to six to eight weeks with the injury.
“It sucks, obviously there’s a lot of frustration here but it’s one of those things … sitting on the couch kind of thinking, ‘Was it worth the dive, missing potentially eight weeks?’ ” Jankowski said before the game against the Nationals. “You come to the realization that I play hard, no matter what. It doesn’t matter if it’s 9-3 or 10-2 or 4-4.“That’s a play I know I can make and I’m gonna go make it. You don’t pick and choose when you can play hard, you just go out and play the game. Unfortunately bad things can happen and that’s what happened. Hopefully it’s less than eight weeks, and I’ll be out there making some diving catches.”
The Mets uniforms featured a poppy patch in honor of Memorial Day, with more than 100 members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard lining the warning track during the national anthem.