Managing injuries has been a never-ending issue for the New York Mets, not just in 2018, but for what seems like a couple of decades now. Scapegoated former head trainer Ray Ramirez took what should be looked at as an unreasonable amount of the blame for this trend.

Attempting to revamp their training department, the Mets created a new position: Director of Performance and Sports Science, and handed that job to former United States Army Supervisor Jim Cavallini.

Cavillini supervises over Ramirez’ old position of head trainer, which is now occupied by Brian Chicklo. Despite the new personnel, it seems that injuries have not gone away, and injury management has not improved.

What we have seen is a very inconsistent base of how the Mets manage player injuries. When Yoenis Cespedes was dealing with a right quad injury, he would be rested a day or two, and then placed back out there, despite the fact that playing the field was becoming increasingly difficult, and visibly so.

We even saw Cespedes beating on his right hip after landing a base hit just before hitting the disabled list on May 16.

Manager Mickey Callaway’s comments on the matter should be more than just a little concerning. According to Lindsey Adler of the Athletic, when asked why Cespedes wasn’t placed on the DL sooner, he responding saying that “If we took that approach we wouldn’t be fielding a team today. We have guys playing through stuff right now. We can’t right when someone starts feeling something take them out of the lineup and put them on the DL.”

The Mets also allowed Todd Frazier to play for a couple of weeks with a hamstring issue before putting him on the DL in May. Frazier would miss just under a month with the hamstring issue.

Even recently, Wallace Matthews of the New York Times reported that Mets’ GM Sandy Alderson said that the Mets were perhaps being “too cautious” with their approach to injuries.

Playing through a simple injury is one thing, but expecting a player to muscle through a hip flexor injury is another. These sorts of injuries should be treated with the utmost caution, as the damage could be long-term if not treated correctly.

Jay Bruce has also been a poster boy for players playing injured. Initially reported on Feb. 24 that Bruce was dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, Bruce has not been on the disabled list yet.

Bruce is hitting .216/.297./327, with a .274 wOBA, and 74 wRC+ in now 61 games, now over a third of the season in. Since May 8, Bruce was hitting just .185/.265/.239, with a .228 wOBA, and a 43 wRC+ going into play today.

Lindsey Adler reported after Wednesday’s loss to the Braves that Bruce, when asked about his plantar fasciitis, said that he still feels it “barking” when he runs the bases and plays the field, but not at the plate. Bruce suggested that all that could be done would be to have significant time off of it, which he deemed “isn’t realistic.”

Now Bruce is dealing with a sore butt/hip/back that is serious enough to make him unavailable on Thursday night and isn’t expected to play again Friday.

Yet again, the Mets pushing a player through injury instead of placing them on the disabled list and calling up someone healthy.

Recently, Asdrubal Cabrera has been dealing with a lingering injury of his own. We’ve watched him play through injury for quite some time now. From the start of the year till May 29, Cabrera held a .383 wOBA, 148 wRC+, while hitting 15 doubles, a triple, and 10 home runs.

Since then, he has just two extra-base hits: a double and a home run. Cabrera is just 4-for-his-last-42 with two walks in that time. The fatigue is showing on the field, and in his stat line. Perhaps the Mets are waiting for the return of Wilmer Flores, who is currently 6-for-11 in three games rehabbing his own injury in St. Lucie, to place Cabrera on the DL, but it’s certainly taking a toll on him.

New year and new training staff for the Mets, yet they continue to screw with their most valuable assets and fail to understand the meaning of a 10-day disabled list.