No one seems to have much of an idea when Luis Robert Jr. might return from the back injury that landed him on the 60-day IL.
“It’s not an ideal situation,’’ Carlos Mendoza said of the uncertainty surrounding the outfielder, who was plagued by lower-body injuries with the White Sox the past two seasons before suffering a lumbar spine disc herniation in April.
“It’s his first time dealing with something like this,’’ the manager said Thursday as the Mets beat the Cardinals 5-4 at Citi Field.
Asked Thursday if he could need surgery to repair the injury, Robert said through an interpreter he didn’t believe that would be the case.
Robert, acquired from Chicago in the offseason in return for Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley, said he expected to be back at some point later this season.
The 28-year-old Robert, now three years removed from his All-Star form with the White Sox, expects to begin running within the next week. He’s only advanced to playing catch and hitting in the cage.
“I’ve been able to do a little bit of everything — just slowly,’’ Robert said through an interpreter. “I expect to come back. Honestly, in the beginning, when I first got hurt, I didn’t think it would take so long [to recover]. But, obviously, it’s a new injury and as the days went on, it started getting worse.”
Mendoza added, “It’s hard to tell what he’s dealing with and how soon he’s gonna be back. That’s always frustrating when you’re talking about a player with that kind of talent. He’s just having a hard time staying on the field for one thing or another.”
The Mets designed a plan in spring training to try to shield him from previous injuries, only for a new one to surface.
With Robert out, A.J. Ewing has emerged as a bit of a bright spot in center, where he’s stood out defensively and shown potential at the plate.
Robert was part of the risky roster makeover during the offseason, which has so far failed to yield results, as Jorge Polanco has also dealt with injury issues and Bo Bichette has slumped for almost the entire season.
Bichette did hit his sixth homer of the season Thursday, a two-run shot in the first. He had been hitless in his previous 10 at-bats and hadn’t homered since he went deep twice May 19.
Christian Scott’s velocity was down a bit and he allowed a career-high three homers in just 4 ²/₃ innings.
He and the Mets were pleased, though, with how he recovered and retired 10 of 13 batters before a Jordan Walker single knocked him out of the game in the fifth.
“I got punched in the mouth and then I punched them in the mouth,” Scott said of his comeback from the early struggles.
The Mets hope Kodai Senga’s rehab stint continues smoothly after it was interrupted by the ulnar nerve irritation in his upper right arm that caused him to be scratched at Double-A Binghamton on Tuesday. … In more bullpen shuffling, right-hander Daniel Duarte was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse, while another righty, Jonathan Pintaro was optioned to Syracuse on Thursday.