{"id":117956,"date":"2026-04-05T16:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=117956"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:02:07","slug":"mets-options-if-soto-hits-il-why-tommy-pham-isnt-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/05\/mets-options-if-soto-hits-il-why-tommy-pham-isnt-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets Options if Soto Hits IL \u2014 Why Tommy Pham Isn\u2019t One"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is still too early to determine whether star slugger Juan Soto<\/a> will need an injured-list stint or not. After getting an MRI examination, it was revealed that Soto was diagnosed with a minor strain in his right calf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soto, who the New York Mets are listing for now as day-to-day, has been out of the starting lineup for a second straight game in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

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The Mets will decide on Soto sometime when they return to New York. Further evaluating him there to come up with a conclusion.<\/p>\n

There are options the Mets can turn to if Soto needs to spend time on the IL. One player that isn’t, however, is veteran outfielder Tommy Pham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why Tommy Pham Is Not an Option<\/h2>\n

Pham, who the Mets signed to a minor league deal just hours before first pitch on Opening Day<\/a>, won’t be joining the Mets \u2014 or a minor league affiliate for that matter relatively any time soon.<\/p>\n

Because Pham, who was a Met in 2023, signed so late, the 38-year-old did not have a spring training. Instead, Pham has been taking swings and doing defensive work in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The club’s spring training complex, in preparation for the season.<\/p>\n

Top Candidates to Potentially Replace Soto<\/h3>\n

Among the most logical options and top candidates for the Mets to potentially replace Soto are outfielders MJ Melendez<\/a>\u00a0and Nick Morabito<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both are already on the 40-man roster. Meaning the Mets do not need to designate a player on the big-league squad for assignment.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Soto’s potential IL stint would be retroactive to an earlier date, meaning he will need to sit out for a shorter required number of days.<\/p>\n

In that case, rather than calling up A.J. Ewing<\/a>, the Mets’ third-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline from Double-A Binghamton, or someone similar for, say, six days, calling up Melendez or Morabito seems the most logical decision.<\/p>\n

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Both outfielders had good springs in their own right. Melendez, 27, a former top prospect for the Kansas City Royals \u2014 signed a split contract<\/a> (different salaries in majors and minors) over the offseason \u2014 but broke camp with Triple-A Syracuse.<\/p>\n

Morabito, 22, was added to the Mets’ 40-man roster in November 2025<\/a>, in protection of the Rule-5 Draft. A second-round pick back in 2022, Morabito is most known for his speed, having stolen 108 bases across the last two seasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If either of the two does get called up, don’t expect much playing time. The Mets have Tyrone Taylor<\/a>, Brett Baty<\/a>, and Jared Young<\/a>, who can all play the corner outfield position.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is still too early to determine whether star slugger Juan Soto will need an injured-list stint or not. After getting an MRI examination, it was revealed that Soto was diagnosed with a minor strain in his right calf. Soto, who the New York Mets are listing for now as day-to-day, has been out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5706,"featured_media":117963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1071,35],"tags":[2690,28831,2133,29272,29190,1087,28811],"class_list":["post-117956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brett-baty","tag-jared-young","tag-juan-soto","tag-mj-melendez","tag-nick-morabito","tag-tommy-pham","tag-tyrone-taylor"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117956"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956\/revisions\/117965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}