The Mets are hopeful DH Jesse Winker will begin his rehab assignment by this weekend, manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday.
“He’ll continue to pretty much go through full workouts here,” the skipper said from Flushing ahead of the game against the Atlanta Braves. “The goal is hopefully he is DHing by the end of the weekend in a minor league rehab assignment.”
Winker has been on the IL since the first week of May with a strained right oblique, an injury that means the slugger will be 6-to-8 weeks out of action. Mendoza wouldn't say it will be a longer time for Winker’s rehab assignment, but didn’t anticipate it being a quick “couple of games” due to the nature of the injury and his time on the shelf.
“He’s gonna need at-bats, that’s for sure,” he said when asked about the duration of the assignment, adding that Winker will likely play Sunday before the minor league club has Monday off. “And then we’ll put together the plan for Tuesday, like one on, one off, and then back-to-back.. When we’re talking about that area, we’ll have to watch him closely.”
Winker, who sustained the injury making a throw from left field, could still be built up to contribute in the outfield, but that isn’t something the club is looking to do at this time.
“We haven’t got there yet, I think the biggest thing is his bat,” Mendoza said. “Even though we kinda prepare him for a scenario where we need him to play in the outfield, which we did, he still went down, so I think the priority here is get him at his best offensively, and then if we have to continue to the progression defensivelty, if we need to do it here at the big league level we’ll do it.”
Mendoza said they “have to prepare” Winker before playing him in the outfield again, but they aren’t shutting the door on using him in the field later this season.
“I didn’t have any hesitation with putting him in the outfield, because I felt good with the work that he was doing and we put him in a position, it’s just unfortunate that [the injury] happens,” the manager said. “If he gets active as DH, Antoan [Richardson] will continue to work with the trainers and put together a plan where he’s getting defensive work, throwing, and all that.
“And if we feel like it gets to a point where we could give him a start there in the outfield, we will.”
Kodai Senga’s latest session 'went well'
Senga played catch on Monday and “everything went well,” Mendoza said. The manager said he had not yet spoken with the starter on Tuesday and that he was set to play catch again ahead of the game against Atlanta.
On Monday, he noted that Senga had been throwing since the injury, and he was getting on the mound and “letting the ball go with some intensity.”
“That's a really good sign,” Mendoza said on Monday. “We'll see what the next step will be. But not even two weeks, and he's already getting on the mound and playing catch with intensity. That's good."
