NEW YORK (AP) — Mets slugger Juan Soto was removed from Tuesday night's game against the Chicago Cubs because of back tightness.
Soto appeared to grimace when he flied out in the first inning. He flied out again in the third and was replaced in left field in the top of the fifth with New York trailing 7-2. Jared Young moved from first base to left field, and Mark Vientos entered at first in Soto’s third spot in the batting order.
In the bottom of the sixth, the last-place Mets announced Soto left with tightness on the left side of his back.
“Back locked up there. So, he’s day-to-day. We’ll see where we’re at. He got treatment during the game, but he got to a point there, you could tell something was off," manager Carlos Mendoza said after his team's 9-6 defeat.
"He was making some faces there and obviously I checked with him and he got to a point where it was like, it was bothering him to throw and then to just get his A swing on it. So at that point, I thought it was just best to get him out of the game and have the trainers look at him.”
Soto, a four-time All-Star and six-time Silver Slugger award winner, began the night batting .301 with 17 homers, 38 RBIs and a .974 OPS. He spent time on the injured list in April with a calf strain.
Recommended for you
In other injury-related news, star shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf strain) had two hits and scored twice in a rehab game with Triple-A Syracuse. A decision is expected Wednesday on whether to reinstate him from the injured list or wait a little longer.
In the same game with Syracuse, outfielder Tyrone Taylor (right hip flexor strain) went 3 for 5 with a homer, a double and three runs against Lehigh Valley. Switch-hitting infielder Ronny Mauricio (broken left thumb) had two hits and three RBIs.
New York expects right-hander Christian Scott (right hip impingement) to come off the injured list this weekend and start Saturday or Sunday against Philadelphia.
And the Mets claimed outfielder Jared Oliva off waivers from the San Francisco Giants and optioned him to Syracuse.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.