Brodie Van Wagenen, Jed Lowrie
Kathy Willens / AP

Jed Lowrie has had a rough go of it since signing with the New York Mets. Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen doesn’t know if it’s getting better. 

Jed Lowrie missed nearly all of the 2019 season with a knee injury. It started out as a small injury in spring training and grew to this monster-sized season-ending injury.

The New York Mets still haven’t given any real details about the frustrating injury.

Lowrie showed up to spring training this year wearing a knee brace. That set off immediate alarms in the media and around the fanbase, suggesting Lowrie is still hurt and might miss significant time again in 2020. To the surprise of many, Lowrie’s been a full participant in drills for the Mets so far.

Despite the full participation Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen isn’t sure if Lowrie can play with the knee brace. In an interview with Gary Apple of SNY Van Wagenen said, “The brace has allowed him to do his rehab, it’s allowed him to do strength work, it’s allowed him to do baseball activities. Now we’re gonna try to see how that brace can correlate into competition.”

Apple pressed Van Wagenen on the issue of Lowrie playing in spring training and he responded, “Too early to tell. And what we’ve seen so far is him being able to participate in all of our drills and activities here, which is a positive sign. And then from there, we’ll try to see how it translates into games.”

The Mets could use Lowrie on the bench. It’s easy to forget now, but Lowrie was playing at an extremely high level when the Mets signed him in the 2018 offseason. Lowrie was worth 8.6 fWAR across 2017 and 2018.

He is capable of providing an elite bench off the bat and quality defense at second and third base. It shouldn’t be underestimated how big it would be for the Mets if Lowrie was healthy and able to play in 2020.

A contributor here at elitesportsny.com. I'm a former graduate student at Loyola University Chicago here I earned my MA in History. I'm an avid Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers fan. I am also a prodigious prospect nerd and do in-depth statistical analysis.