Luis Castillo: Not 100 Percent

The Mets expect Carlos Delgado back in the lineup to start the Phillies series on Friday night, but may still be missing their starting second baseman in Luis Castillo.

The right side of the infield missed the last two games of the Florida series with what amounted to nagging injuries.

From what I understand, Delgado will have to deal with his hip troubles until he retires or decides to have surgery. 

At this point I'm worried, since he's been a Met he has had two very bad slumps, both of which could be attributed to nagging injuries (wrist/hip) that he tried valiantly to play through.

Delgado is a big man with a lot of moving parts.  At his age, if anything doesn't feel right he loses bat speed and is susceptible to good pitching.

A month ago many fans would have bet that Alex Cora would be the starting second baseman to start May, but the numbers would have been much less to bet that Castillo would be missed.

Now don't get me wrong, Cora is playing solid defense and has made the most of his plate appearances, but Castillo is back to being that pesky player he was notorious for being in Minnesota and Florida.

It sounds like the back spasms that sidelined Castillo the last two games will prevent him from at least being in the starting lineup for the start of the Philadelphia series.

""I feel better," Castillo said, holding the right side of his back. "But I don't feel 100 percent." source MLB.com."