Citi Field went quiet on Thursday, and it stayed that way for a while.
Mets first baseman Jared Young was manning first in the top of the sixth against the Phillies when Justin Crawford hit a dribbler to the right side that rolled into no man’s land. Pitcher Nolan McLean broke off the mound to field it. Young initially moved to cover the bag, then changed his mind and dove for the ball.
Neither player called it off. McLean was still charging at full speed when they met.
The Impact
McLean was upended. Young got the worse end of it by a wide margin, taking a knee flush to the head. He appeared to be out cold for a moment.
“Really scary scene right now at Citi Field,” Anthony DiComo of MLB.com posted. “Jared Young is in the process of being carted off after accidentally being struck full force in the head by Nolan McLean on this play. He appeared to be out cold for a moment following the play.”
Young was carted off and replaced by Mark Vientos. He gave a thumbs-up to the crowd on his way out, which was the first encouraging sign of the night.
Nobody Is At Fault Here
This is worth saying plainly, because someone always wants a villain. There isn’t one.
The ball was hit into the exact dead zone between a first baseman and a pitcher. Both players made a defensible read. Young committing late to the dive is what turned a routine miscommunication into a head injury, and he made that decision in under a second while trying to get an out.
McLean will feel awful about it regardless. Pitchers almost always do.
The Bigger Picture For New York
The Mets were already eliminated from postseason contention, finishing a season that started with one of the largest payrolls in baseball and a roster built around Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor. They sit at 69-83, 19.5 games back in the NL East.
That context makes this worse, not better. There is no October to play for, no reason for anyone in that clubhouse to be risking a concussion on a ground ball in a lost season.
What To Watch
Head injuries follow their own timeline. The thumbs-up was encouraging, and being alert enough to acknowledge the crowd after losing consciousness is meaningful. It is not a clearance.
Young will go through concussion protocol, and with less than two weeks left on the schedule there is no argument for rushing him back. The Mets have nothing to gain and a player’s next season to lose.
Shut him down. Get him to spring training healthy. That is the only version of this that makes sense.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.