On Wednesday, the New York Mets placed Jeff McNeil on the injured list due to a low-grade hamstring strain. In a corresponding move, the Mets purchased the contract of infielder Ruben Tejada from Triple-A Syracuse, bringing him to the majors for the first time since 2017.
Tejada, of course, began his career with the Mets organization. He played in parts of six seasons with the Mets, posting an 84 OPS+ in 580 games. Perhaps most infamously, Tejada suffered a broken leg during the 2015 National League Divisional Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The injury was caused by an overzealous Chase Utley slide.
Here's the play, for those who don't recall what happened:
Tejada talked about that play on Wednesday, and noted that he hasn't talked to Utley since:
As longtime big-league outfielder Preston Wilson noted on Twitter, reaching out to an injured player is often considered a professional courtesy:
This past May, Utley was a guest on "Boomer and Gio" on CBS Sports Network during which he discussed the play, and noted that he did try to reach out to Tejada after the incident through David Wright, but that Tejada didn't want to talk to him.
The tough part is that Tejada's career hasn't yet recovered since the incident. He's appeared in 77 big-league games since and has a 49 OPS+ in those contests. Tejada was just 25 years old when the play happened. He's now 29 and trying to re-establish himself as a big-league player.
Utley, for his part, was initially suspended two games for the slide. The suspension was later overturned.