The Mets may have no choice but to water down Jorge Polanco’s role

Jorge Polanco’s Mets season is starting to feel like one long negotiation with his left Achilles.

The Mets do not sound ready to shut him down. They also do not sound like they have a clean baseball player to put back on the field. That is the problem.

Carlos Mendoza said the team has consulted specialists, including overseas, and that shutting Polanco down was not an option. Mendoza added that the next step could be batting practice soon, maybe with controlled running, while the Mets may eventually have to bring him back as a DH and set defense aside until the injury calms down.

The Mets are trying to salvage the bat

This is where the whole thing gets awkward. Polanco was not brought here to be a medical puzzle. He was brought here because the Mets needed a switch-hitting veteran who could replace some of the production they lost, move around the infield, and give the lineup a real middle-order threat.

Instead, his season has been stuck in maintenance mode almost from the start. The Achilles issue already pushed him toward DH work in April, then the injured list, then a rehab assignment that was supposed to get him closer to useful again. Even last week, the question was whether the Mets could get one missing bat back without dragging the same problem with him.

That is why the DH-only idea makes sense, even if it also feels like an admission. If the Mets can get the bat without asking him to move, stop, stretch, and survive first base, they probably have to consider it.

The defense part may have to wait

The Mets signed Polanco to do more than hit. That was always part of the appeal. He could learn first base, rotate through the infield, and give Mendoza more ways to build a lineup without locking himself into one rigid group.

That version has barely existed.

Before the IL stint, Polanco was hitting .179/.246/.286 over 61 plate appearances, and the production was not strong enough to make the defensive limitations feel harmless. When a player is only giving you DH availability, the bat has to carry more of the argument.

That is the tightrope now. The Mets need his switch-hitting profile because the lineup has spent too much of the season looking thinner than it should. They also cannot pretend a compromised Polanco solves the same problems a healthy one would.

This is starting to look like damage control

The Mets may not have a perfect option here. Shutting him down takes away a bat they still believe can help. Rushing him back defensively risks keeping the Achilles issue in the middle of every lineup decision.

So DH-only might be the least bad answer.

It is not what the Mets wanted when they built this roster. It is not the flexible version of Polanco they paid for. But if the bat can move soon and the leg still cannot be trusted, Mendoza may have to stop chasing the full player and settle for the part that can actually help.

That is where this injury has dragged the Mets. They are no longer asking whether Polanco is ready to be everything they planned. They are asking how little of him they can live with.