Sometimes it feels like the New York Mets are the unluckiest team in baseball. Even though they had an average start to last season, none of the franchise cornerstones were injured. But this year, the story has gone the other way round. The Mets are off to a flying start. But it looks like injury has played its part and taken away Juan Soto.

“Juan Soto (calf) expected to miss 2-3 weeks,” reported Underdog MLB.

Juan Soto suffered right calf tightness on April 3 in the 10-3 win over the Giants. He singled and advanced on a hit by Bo Bichette. But he was thrown out at home and was later taken off. Soto immediately went for an MRI.

Doctors later confirmed that he had a mild calf strain injury. But Juan Soto remained positive.

“I’ve experienced calf tightness before… This is definitely not the worst I’ve felt. So I feel positive about that.”

In 2022, during his stint with the Washington Nationals, Soto experienced tightness in the same area. But back then, he returned to the mound almost immediately. While he had described the previous one as a “grab” while running the bases, the current tightness held him in a 10-day IL.

This injury has come at the worst time possible for the New York Mets and Juan Soto.

Before his injury, Soto was batting with an average of .355 with a homer and 5 RBIs. He was on a seven-game hitting streak, maintaining a .412 on-base percentage and .516 slugging percentage (.928 OPS).

Now, the Mets have recalled infielder Ronny Mauricio to replace Soto. The 25-year-old was hitting .273 with a .688 OPS in Triple-A. He is expected to add depth and versatility to the NYM roster. Meanwhile, the pressure on Tyrone Taylor has also gone up.

Taylor has 2 hits in 13 at-bats with a homer, showing that he can be a good replacement for Soto in left field.

The Mets are 6-4 in the season, but they have a couple of crucial series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs coming up. With the team’s hottest hitter out and the rest of the batting lineup not hitting on full stride yet, it is going to be tricky to handle these series and not fall behind in the race for the postseason.

How will the injury to Juan Soto impact the Mets?

The New York Mets are going to be missing Juan Soto for almost a month. But things might not get as bad as they look.

With the pressure to make it to the postseason in 2026 after missing it in 2025, it looks like the batters have taken up the onus to perform. In the series against the San Francisco Giants, the Mets’ batters scored 26 runs in the 4 games.

Batters like Mark Vientos stepped up to the plate and made sure to contribute with an RBI in each of the 4 games and at least a hit in each of them. Even Marcus Semien had a good time racking up 4 RBIs and 7 hits in the 4 games.

With teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland Athletics up next, the Mets could use this momentum and get as many wins as possible.

We have seen that both the Diamondbacks and the Athletics both have given up massive amounts of runs to opponents like the Atlanta Braves, who racked up 17 runs in a single game against the D-backs.

But the problem starts after that.

They will go up against the Dodgers, coming off a series against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers. And they will be followed up by the Cubs. The Mets will have to survive a tough run of fixtures.

The burden now shifts to players like Francisco Lindor, 5 for 37 with no RBIs, but he has shown patience and leads the league with 10 walks. Bo Bichette will have to step up big time if he wants his first season with the Mets to go to the postseason. Bichette is currently 9 for 45 with 6 RBIs.

If the Mets want to make it through the month without Soto, they will need the whole team to perform.