NEW YORK (AP) — Jorge Polanco returned to the New York Mets' lineup Tuesday after missing nearly three months with right wrist and left Achilles injuries.
“Feeling good,” Polanco said before the Mets opened a series against Kansas City. “Feeling grateful. Excited to be back.”
Polanco, who hadn't played since April 14, went 1 for 4 with an RBI double and a walk in the Mets' 16-12 loss. He also had a home run overturned in the fifth, when a crew chief review revealed the ball sailed just foul down the right field line.
He'll likely occupy the DH spot the remainder of the season as the last-place Mets manage his chronic Achilles injury.
Polanco signed to two-year, $40 million deal with the expectation he’d replace Pete Alonso at first base, despite having played just one inning at that position.
He started at first base in the first two games of the season, before he began battling bursitis in his left Achilles. Polanco was batting .179 with a homer in 56 at-bats when he went on the injured list with a right wrist contusion April 18.
Polanco received a platelet-rich injection in April. He paused a minor league rehab assignment in early June and went 2 for 15 with two homers for Triple-A Syracuse in five games since resuming the assignment June 27.
“Got more good days than bad days,” Polanco said. “That’s why I came here now.”
Interim manager Andy Green said Polanco won’t play everyday at designated hitter. He said his presence off the bench as a switch-hitter will provide flexibility in the late innings.
Outfielder Luis Robert Jr., sidelined since April 27 due to lumbar spine disc herniation, moved his rehab to Double-A Binghamton on Tuesday. He went 1 for 10 in three games for Syracuse and will likely play his first game for Binghamton on Wednesday.
Second baseman Marcus Semien, placed on the IL with a left hip flexor strain on June 25, ran at what Green described as 80% intensity Monday.
To make room for Polanco on the active roster, the Mets optioned infielder Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A Syracuse. The club also designated pitchers Guillermo Zuniga and Alex Carrillo for assignment and added right-hander Matt Seelinger to the active roster.
Seelinger, a 31-year-old native of nearby Westbury, New York, took the loss in his big league debut after giving up seven runs and throwing 52 pitches over two innings of relief for the short-handed Mets.
The 28th-round selection of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2017 draft, Seelinger, who played at Division III Farmingdale State on Long Island, said he expected plenty of family and friends in attendance Tuesday night.
“I think it’s really cool — you probably can’t script stories better than playing in the ballpark that was 15 minutes away from where you grew up and having grinded for nine to 10 years in the minor leagues,” Green said before the game. “I think you’re always excited about those stories.”
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FILE - New York Mets' Jorge Polanco (11) bats during the first inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis,File)
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) — Funeral processions for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Najaf with thousands of mourners present.
The Islamic Republic's dayslong funeral for Khamenei began Saturday, with authorities shutting down streets, airspace and daily life in Tehran as mourners commemorate the life of the man who led Iran for decades with an iron fist while confronting the West. His body will later be taken from Najaf to the city of Karbala before returning to Iran.
Talks between the United States and Iran appear to be on hold until after the burial. However, strikes from both sides in the Persian Gulf Tuesday and into Wednesday raised risks that the interim agreement to end the monthslong war that engulfed the Mideast could break down. The U.S. military attacked Iran early Wednesday after it said Tehran struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, before Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain.
The body of Khamenei arrived in the Iraqi city considered among the holiest for millions of Shiite Muslims around the world on Tuesday, alongside Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and other senior officials. They were welcomed by mourners and supporters holding portraits of the late supreme leader, and others performing self-flagellation on the streets.
Khamenei’s body was in a casket draped in the Islamic Republic’s flag, encased in glass. Mourners waved flags of Iran as well as red and black flags symbolizing mourning and revenge.
“We the people of Iraq will remain a thorn in the eyes of the enemies,” said Jaafar Jawad, who is participating in the funeral. "His arrival to us is the greatest possible honor, and God willing we will be loyal, and repay a little of his due in the holy city of Najaf.”
The funeral prayers in Najaf will take place at the Shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, and will be led by Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, a senior scholar at the Najaf seminary.
In Karbala, also a holy city for Shiite Muslims where the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet, was killed in 680 AD, Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei, a representative of Iraq's top Shiite religious authority will lead the prayers at the Imam Hussein Shrine.
Khamenei was killed in late February in wide-scale U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. He was among several senior Iranian leaders killed in strikes during the war. He was 86.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance in the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.
Mourners surround a truck carrying the coffin of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a funeral procession in Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Mourners reach toward a truck carrying the coffin of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a funeral procession in Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A truck carrying the coffin of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes its way through mourners during a funeral procession in Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Mourners reach toward a truck carrying the coffin of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a funeral procession in Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Shiite mourners chant slogans as the perform ritual self-flagellation with chains outside the Imam Hussein Shrine on the eve of funeral ceremonies for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Karbala, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
An Iraqi Shiite soldier chants on the eve of funeral ceremonies for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Mourners sit outside the Imam Hussein Shrine on the eve of of funeral ceremonies for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Karbala, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are distributed outside the Imam Ali Shrine on the eve of funeral ceremonies in Najaf, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Mourners wave Shiite religious flags and a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outside the Imam Ali Shrine on the eve of funeral ceremonies in Najaf, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
