NEW YORK The Mets best hitter isnt at his locker at Citi Field. Hes not in the batting cages. Hes not on the field, in his usual blue sweatshirt with his hoodie pulled up, in the still-freezing April temperatures in Queens. Juan Soto is nowhere to be found because his directive is, simply, to rest. Soto strained his right calf while running the bases during the Mets series against the Giants at Oracle Park last weekend. He went on the injured list on April 4. The team expects the outfielder to miss anywhere from 23 weeks, at best. No one around the Mets is happy about this, but they also understand that life, the schedule, and the games must go on. New York has to find a way to win without their superstar slugger, who was off to a terrific .355/.412/.516 start at the plate before he hit the shelf. "Hes irreplaceable," Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor told me at his locker on Wednesday. "Hes a top-three player in the league. Hes that good. As a team, weve always said that its about sticking together at a time like this. Gather around him and be all together in this, and support him and play for each other. I hope this is a very short,very short IL for him." So far, at least, the Mets have managed to stay afloat without Soto. Entering Thursday, theyre 4-1 since he landed on the IL. The schedule has been kind to them in this stretch, with the Mets winning the series against the Giants while going for another series win against the Diamondbacks on Thursday. They host a three-game set against the Athletics on Friday to wrap up the soft part of their April itinerary. But things will get challenging on Monday, when the Dodgers welcome the Mets in Los Angeles for their first matchup since June 2025, when they split the series at Chavez Ravine. The Mets will continue asking for their younger stars to step in Sotos absence. "As a group we know we have a lot of depth in here," Mets second baseman Marcus Semien told me in the Citi Field clubhouse on Wednesday. "Its an opportunity for guys to play a little bit more. The main thing is we all have his back. And well just let him know, well all hold it down until he comes back. Its a little hiccup for him. But at the end of the day, weve been playing some good baseball." Its been uncanny to see part-time players and bench bats take charge without Soto. On Tuesday, infielder Ronny Mauricio was promoted from the minor leagues to the majors to replace Soto on the 26-man roster. Hours later, his first big-league hit of the year was a three-run walk-off home run in extra innings against Arizona. Earlier in that same game, outfielder Jared Young delivered a key sacrifice fly to tie the game in the eighth inning. Infielder Mark Vientos was a huge factor in the series finale against the Giants on Sunday, which was Sotos first missed game, going 3-for-5 with an RBI two runs scored. Its unclear if those role players performing has helped Soto ease any pressure of wanting to return to the lineup as fast as possible. As previously mentioned, the outfielder has vanished from the usual pregame preparation and day-to-day activities. But the Mets broadcasting the weeks-long timeline for Sotos return on the very same day he went on the IL is an indication that the team is not messing around with his recovery. As much as Soto may be itching to hit again, the silver lining is the timing of his injury on the baseball calendar. Right now, the Mets can afford to play it safe. "You definitely want to be patient with injuries like that," Semien said. "Youve seen guys have nagging things and they try to come back too quick, and it ends up being a bigger deal. Thats going to be hard, because hes a guy whos played in 160-plus games in most seasons." J.D. Martinez Gets Comfortable Upstairs J.D. Martinez received a text when news dropped last week that the retired slugger joined the Mets as a special assistant to baseball operations. The message was from his former 2024 Mets teammate, Jose Iglesias, with a screenshot of the news and three letters: "OMG." Those three letters are the name of a popular song by Iglesias, who moonlights as a singer-songwriter named Candelita. The 2024 Mets rallied behind the song and went all the way to the National League Championship Series that season, with Martinez and Iglesias revered at the time as the teams two vital clubhouse leaders. After his lone season with the Mets, Martinez sat out the 2025 season before rejoining the organization as a member of the front office this month. On Wednesday, Martinez started settling into his new role upstairs. "Its interesting," Martinez said of the front-office side of baseball, speaking in the Mets dugout on Wednesday. "Yesterday, they took me up there and its like an army up there. Its kind of wild. I was like, Wait. These are all the people that give us information and help us out?! And they were like, Yeah. This is behind-the-scenes. Ive never seen anything like this. "I was a little intimidated by it, because theyre a lot smarter than us. But then I come down here and everything feels normal again. So its something that I definitely want to continue to learn from. I think it would be good for me to be in those meetings." Martinez has stayed in contact with the Mets, including president of baseball operations David Stearns, since that 2024 season. He envisions his role to involve mainly mentorship and strategy, while relaying to the front office what the players perspective can be throughout the season, acting as a liaison between the two sides. Martinez in 24 was known to go out of his way to help players out. Now, hell have the time in the world to do just that. "This could be fun," Martinez said of his thought process when deciding to join the organization. "I like what theyre doing here. I like the team they built here. I had a great experience here with the front office, with ownership, with the clubhouse, everything. It was just a really fun place to come. So I said, why not? Lets do it." Deesha Thosarcovers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at@DeeshaThosar.