Mets put David Wright on DL
NEW YORK -- Mets captain David Wright has landed on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring.
Wright underwent an MRI on Wednesday morning at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. He received a cortisone injection and will be idle for at least two days, the team announced.
Eric Campbell has been promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas to take Wright's roster spot and will start Wednesday night's game at third base.
Wright was injuredwhile stealing second base in the eighth inning Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies, putting a damper on Matt Harvey's first home start since Aug. 24, 2013. The third baseman tried to stay in the game but asked to depart five pitches later.
There's a chance Wright will miss only two weeks of action.
"I'm optimistic that it's gonna be two weeks," Wright said Wednesday. "But I don't want to go out and do exactly the opposite of what I just said -- where I go out there and try to rush it because I'm expecting it to be two weeks, then go out there and miss another two weeks because I didn't give it an extra day or two."
"The indication was a mild strain last night, and we were happy that the MRI confirmed that," said GM Sandy Alderson. "Any time there's a hamstring injury, it's almost an automatic couple weeks. Hopefully this will be a two- to three-week proposition, but you never know.
"Two weeks would be great, three weeks probably an expectation."
The Mets actually suffered three injuries in Tuesday's game. Left fielder Michael Cuddyer and shortstop Wilmer Flores were hit on their hands with second-inning pitches from Phillies right-hander David Buchanan.
Cuddyer left the game. X-rays of his left hand -- by a knuckle -- were negative, and he was in the lineup Wednesday. Flores, who had swelling in his right hand, completed Tuesday's game. He was not in the lineup Wednesday, but manager Terry Collins said he had already planned to play Ruben Tejada at shortstop Wednesday. Flores said he felt fine and was available off the bench.
The Mets, who opened the season with a four-man bench and eight-man bullpen, had to use backup catcher Anthony Recker to finish Tuesday's game once Wright departed. Campbell was the odd man out in spring training when the Mets decided to carry a four-man bench. Capable of playing the corner infield and outfield positions, he was hitting .550 (11-for-20) with two homers and six RBIs in six Pacific Coast League games. He was pulled from Las Vegas' game Tuesday night at Sacramento in the third inning.
Collins is planning to use Campbell as his every-day third baseman in Wright's absence, as opposed to moving Flores or second basemanDaniel Murphyto third.
"Because it's two weeks [without Wright], and not a month or eight weeks or something, you just don't wanna move guys all around. There's a reason why they are in the positions they're in," Collins said. "We brought somebody up, and we're gonna stick him in there and leave everybody else where they've been playing, and hopefully it doesn't change the way we've been going about things."
As for the eight-man bullpen, that might not last much longer.
"Things may change rosterwise over the next week or 10 days, depending on how the starting pitching goes, whether we think we continue to need eight relievers, whether we think we need an extra bench player maybe against right-handed pitching," Alderson said. "We'll be looking at those things over the next week."
