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Mets DH J.D Martinez was forced to miss Tuesday’s showdown with the Nationals due to a minor ankle injury, and while that normally wouldn’t be a notable story, I’d argue it is when you consider his absence was linked to a pair of cleats he had to order off Amazon due to some logistical issues.
One of the many perks of being a professional athlete is the fact that you typically have access to all the top-of-the-line equipment and apparel you need to do your job, and every team boasts a crew of employees whose primary job is ensuring players have easy access to those necessities.
I can’t say I’m intimately familiar with how the New York Mets operate their clubhouse, but I’m going to assume there’s a valid reason the team’s equipment managers were unable to procure a new pair of cleats for J.D. Martinez when he recently found himself in need of some fresh kicks.
According to Newsday, Martinez usually wears his preferred model of Adidas cleats for three or four games before switching them out for a new pair. However, he found himself in a bit of a pickle after the most recent shipment was delayed due to a production issue, so he channeled his inner everyman and turned to Amazon for a stopgap.
However, the outlet reports the shoes he ordered were equipped with an extra spike that he seems to think was responsible for extra pressure that contributed to an ankle injury that knocked him out of the lineup on Tuesday night.
During a postgame chat with the media, he shed some more light on what transpired, saying he didn’t have any issues during Monday’s game against Washington but woke up with soreness that escalated to an unplayable threshold after he took a couple of cuts in the batting cage.
If any MLB team was going to lose a player to injury because they had to order cleats off Amazon, it was going to be the Mets.
It doesn’t sound like the issue is too serious, so here’s to hoping Martinez makes a quick recovery and doesn’t have to resort to the online retailer again.