Mets place Jed Lowrie on injured list with left knee discomfort

The Mets have placed infielder Jed Lowrie on the injured list with left knee discomfort, continuing the nearly-two-year saga in which the veteran has almost never played for the Mets since signing with them as a free agent before the 2019 season.

The 36-year-old switch hitter was coming off a season in which he hit a very good .267/.353/.448 with 23 home runs and 99 RBIs with the Athletics in 2018 when he signed a two-year, $20 million contract with the Mets. He was sidelined by an injury in spring training in 2019, and it forced him to miss all of the season except for eight plate appearances he made late in the year, hitting .000/.125/.000 in those and never playing an inning in the field.

Despite the long layoff from baseball resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Lowrie’s injury status was still iffy when Major League Baseball resumed baseball activities with summer camp earlier this month. Lowrie has taken part in at least a portion of those training activities, notably hitting a double off Jacob deGrom in a simulated game at Citi Field as it was broadcast on social media. But clearly there’s no certainty that he will appear in a real Mets game anytime soon.