NEW YORK (AP) — The depleted New York Mets took another hit Thursday when center fielder Luis Robert Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list with lumbar spine disk herniation.
Robert, 28, hasn’t played since the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies due to what the team said was lower back tightness. An MRI administered on Wednesday revealed the injury. The IL move was retroactive to April 27.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said Robert had an epidural and was instructed to rest for seven to 10 days. He said team doctors were hopeful Robert could return shortly thereafter.
“It’s just frustrating from both ends — for Luis, for us,” Mendoza said before the series finale against the Washington Nationals. “But we’ve got to get him back right.”
The IL stint is the 10th since 2021 for Robert, who has previously been sidelined by right hip, right knee, left wrist and left hamstring issues as well as blurred vision. He has played more than 110 games just once — in 2023, when he finished 12th in the AL MVP voting after hitting 38 homers for the Chicago White Sox.
The Mets acquired Robert from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Luisangel Acuña in January in hopes the former Gold Glove Award winner could help improve their up-the-middle defense. He was limited to back field duty for most of spring training in an attempt to keep him healthy for the regular season.
Robert had a homer and five RBIs in the first two games of the season but has just five hits in his last 38 at-bats dating back to April 13 to drop his season average to .224.
“He’s super frustrated — yesterday and this morning, when he got the news — because he’s done everything we’re asking him to do,” Mendoza said.
Robert is the second Mets player to hit the injured list with a lumbar spine ailment this week and the third opening day position player on the shelf. Starting pitcher Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) went on the 15-day injured list Tuesday.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf) and first baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco (left Achilles, right wrist) are also on the injured list for the Mets, who began Thursday with baseball’s worst record at 10-20.
To replace Robert, the Mets recalled infielder Eric Wagaman from Triple-A Syracuse. The club also recalled pitcher Austin Warren from Syracuse and designated veteran pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. for assignment. Edwards allowed one run in six innings of relief over two appearances this week.
New York also claimed infielder Andy Ibáñez off waivers from the Athletics.
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New York Mets' Luis Robert Jr. hits a single during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana suspended its congressional primaries Thursday as early voting was about to get underway while pressure mounted on Republican officials in other states to also redraw their U.S. House maps in light of a Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order indefinitely postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.
“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”
The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.
President Donald Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state's congressional districts and urged Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court's decision.
While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court's decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.
“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.
The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.
“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters -- Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed Louisiana’s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.
Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
On Wednesday, Florida became the latest state to redraw its U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.
The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.
Trump wants Tennessee to also take up redistricting in response to the court's ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state's nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court's decision.
After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.
A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act. And the following year the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create its own second majority Black congressional district.
In response, Louisiana’s legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.
After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.
“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.
Republican state lawmakers are reviewing which pending bills could be used to alter primaries and reconfigure congressional maps, said Louisiana state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, chair of the House committee overseeing redistricting efforts.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and members of the Congressional Black Caucus speak to reporters in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to strike down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
