Mets Place Ruben Tejada On Disabled List, Recall Jordany Valdespin

The Mets have placed 22-year-old shortstop Ruben Tejada on the disabled list following his fall while running to first base yesterday. Tejada strained his quad and banged up his eye in the fall. Jordany Valdespin will rejoin the team less than forty-eight hours after he was sent to Buffalo to make room for D.J. Carrasco.

Justin Turner will make his first big league start at short tonight in Tejada's place, and Terry Collins has already indicated he will use Valdespin in the starting lineup tomorrow. Neither player is well-versed at short, as Turner has very little experience at the position and Valdespin struggled to handle it in the minors last year.

Through 27 games this year, Tejada was hitting .305/.362/.400 and playing capable defense at short. While the Turner-Valdespin stopgap is far from ideal, Ronny Cedeno is scheduled to return from the disabled list on Friday. If he does, the Mets should at least have a glove-first shortstop until Tejada is ready to return.