Mets’ Neil Walker will miss remainder of season to have back surgery

Had he continued to play, he estimated he would’ve been at “60 percent”. He may have hit.387 with a 1.048 OPS from July to August, but lower back stiffness stole him out of the lineup at a crucial time for the Mets’ playoff hopes.

“It was a very hard decision”, Walker said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries but we have to keep playing with what we have”. “I did everything I could”.

When the Mets moved on from Murphy and acquired Walker, they at least had Dilson Herrera waiting to possibly replace Walker after this year, but the team now lacks a blue-chip second base prospect after trading Herrera to the Reds.

“I took 30 seconds and told them how proud I was of the fact they’ve hung in there through all the injuries, all the different things that have happened”, Collins revealed to reporters. Walker was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back earlier on Wednesday and while the second baseman wanted to play through the injury, it was causing him numbness in his foot and leg.

Walker’s season will end prematurely due to a herniated disk. Biggest issue was it was hitting a nerve.

On Wednesday ESPN baseball analyst Jim Bowden, who is a former general manager for both the Reds and Nationals, was a guest on the Cook and Poni Show on 93.7 The Fan and said front office executives are very leery of back problems because they never go away.

“The more I tried to push through it, the more I realized I was hurting the team and myself”. Still bugging me a little bit, don’t quite feel I can really let it go yet. “I don’t want people to become too concerned about where we are”. The team undoubtedly won the trade with Pittsburgh in which it sent Jon Niese to acquire Walker this past offseason. A free-agent-to-be, Walker had been discussed as a contract extension candidate to remain in NY. He will be replaced by a contingent of lesser performers, including Kelly Johnson, Wilmer Flores, Jose Reyes and T.J. Rivera.