The Mets activated Jed Lowrie from the 60-day injured list on Saturday, marking the infielder’s return to the active roster for the first time this season. Lowrie has been laid up with knee, hamstring, and calf injures since spring training and has yet to appear for the Mets’ big-league squad in any capacity. It’s not clear when he might make his season debut, though it could come as soon as Sunday’s series finale against the Phillies.
The 35-year-old inked a two-year, $20 million pact with the Mets last January, one that will presumably see him through the end of the 2020 season. At the time of the signing, Lowrie was coming off of his best career year, one in which he delivered 23 home runs and 5.0 fWAR while batting a solid .267/.353/.448 through 680 plate appearances for the Athletics. That all changed when he showed up with a capsule sprain in his left knee at the Mets’ camp this spring.
Now, however, it looks as though Lowrie is close to 100 percent. In two rehab stints at High-A St. Lucie and Triple-A Syracuse (as well as a few postseason appearances with Short-Season Single-A Brooklyn), he slashed a cumulative .234/.290/.359 with four extra-base hits and a .649 OPS through 69 plate appearances. Once he cracks the Mets’ lineup, he’ll likely play off the bench in lieu of a full-time workload at second, third, or short.
In a corresponding roster move, the club transferred infielder/outfielder Dominic Smith to the 60-day injured list. Smith sustained a stress reaction in his right foot several months ago and has been laid up on the IL ever since. He’s batting .278/.352/.506 with 10 homers and an .858 OPS in 196 PA during his third major-league campaign.
