The Mets caught a bad break with Lagares, who was having a great start to the season.
The Mets won yesterday against the Diamondbacks, but during the game both Curtis Granderson and Juan Lagares were injured. Granderson suffered multiple contusions after crashing into the outfield wall in the first inning. Lagares hurt his hamstring while running to first base.
With at least a few days still remaining on Chris Young's DL stint, the Mets were forced to play an outfield of Eric Young Jr., Lucas Duda, and Andrew Brown for much of the game. Since that's not an appealing long-term option, Kirk Nieuwenhuis was brought over from Las Vegas to join the Mets in time for Tuesday's game.
He'll be taking the roster spot of Lagares, who is now on the disabled list with a hamstring strain. The injury is a tough break for the younger center fielder, who was having a wonderful first two weeks of the season. Along with his expected spectacular defense, Lagares has hit .314/.345/.471 with three walks and 13 strikeouts. Hopefully this injury is just a small speed bump on the way to greater things for Lagares.
In the meantime, the Mets will enjoy the services of Nieuwenhuis, who has proven to be a capable defender at the major league level. He's never hit well enough to stay up in the bigs, but at least he's off to a good start in 2014 with 13 hits and a pair of homers in 42 at-bats for Las Vegas.