Juan Soto Injured, Latest Updates on Mets Star After Exiting vs. Cubs

New York Mets superstar outfielder Juan Soto left Tuesday's game against the Chicago Cubs with left side back tightness, the team announced.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the "initial belief is Soto had only a spasm."

The Mets are considered him day to day with the issue:

He seemed to show signs of discomfort after a pair of swings while he was still in the game:

Soto, 27, has been arguably the lone bright spot for the Mets this season, hitting .301 with 17 homers, 38 RBI, 36 runs, six stolen bases and a .974 OPS. What can go wrong often has gone wrong for the 34-43 Mets, but Soto has been consistently impactful.

He already missed about two-and-a-half weeks earlier in the season with a strained right calf, while star infielder Francisco Lindor has been out of the lineup since April 22 with a strained left calf of his own. Soto and Lindor have only played nine games together this year.

A lengthy Soto injury would almost assuredly be a death knell for the 2026 Mets, though the hope will be that his injury isn't serious. In either event, the team will eventually have to consider becoming sellers if the current struggles continue.

For now, however, they are staying the course.

"I think we're going to continue to give this team time to prove that we can get back in this in a very legitimate sense," president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters earlier on Tuesday.

"I think [team owner Steve Cohen] wants us to be certainly better than we are," he added. "He's frustrated. We're all frustrated. Steve expects us to do better than this. I expect us to do better than this. He, like me, is going to withhold judgment on any sort of trade deadline strategy until we have to make a decision closer to that time."