Starling Marte was forced out of Saturday afternoon's loss to the Chicago Cubs in the bottom of the second with what the team called right knee soreness.
The Mets' outfielder told reporters postgame that he's been dealing with the issue over the past few weeks, which is why he's been in and out of the lineup, and it flared back up on him following Friday's series opener.
Marte expected the pain to simply go away after undergoing treatment pregame, but when it continued to bother him early on in the contest, he decided it was best to come out.
"It's one of those things where one day it's better and other days not so much, but it's something we've been battling with, and today was just one of those days where it just hurt more than most days," he said through an interpreter.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza feels it's still too early to tell whether or not the issue will require a stint on the injured list, but the outfielder will undergo testing when the team returns home on Monday.
As for Marte himself, he doesn't think he'll be sidelined for too long but he does feel that it'll be something they'll have to continue treating moving forward to ensure it heals.
"You want the results to come back negative because then we can just kind of get a different plan of action to be able to get back on the field, because at the end of the day that is my goal," he said. "But at the same time, we have to see what's going on with those tests because I don't want to be out for a considerable amount of time, especially with the team playing so well."
The Mets have emphasized limiting Marte's workload since spring training in an attempt to keep him healthy, but with his offensive prowess early on, the skipper admitted it's been hard to sideline him.
Heading into this afternoon's game, Marte had been putting together a solid bounceback at the plate with a .311 average and four extra-base hits thus far in June.
"He's an important part of our team with the way he's swinging the bat and what he brings to the table and in so many different areas of the game," Mendoza said. "We'll see what we're dealing with here, hopefully, it's nothing serious and in a couple of days he'll be back there, but right now we just have to wait and see."