Jose Reyes Rushed To New York For Further Thyroid Testing

Sports News - March 5th, 2010 - Written By John Ritter

New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes said he doesn't feel "haunted" by his injury history, but another big issue Friday certainly won't help him return to the line-up any quicker.

Team doctors have asked Reyes to return to New York to undergo further testing after discovering a thyroid imbalance, the Associated Press reports.

The chemical imbalance, which affects metabolism, was found on Thursday.

Reyes planned on playing Friday afternoon in a Spring Training game against the St. Louis Cardinals, but worrisome trainers wrangled him back into the clubhouse during warm-ups, and informed him he would need to take a plane back to New York.

"We're going to be conservative," general manager Omar Minaya said.

ESPN's Tim Kurkjian reported on Sportscenter that he was told the Mets aren't worried Reyes will miss significant time.

Reyes has been in-and-out of New York's lineup since back-to-back All-Star seasons in '06 and '07. Last year, he missed 126 games due to hamstring issues in which trainers found a tear in the tissue. He was hoping to come back later in the year, but as the Mets dropped further in the wild card race, rushing him didn't seem like a necessary option.

Reyes said he's fine after an off-season of rehabilitation, and was planning on returning to the lineup at full strength this season.

“We’re not talking about my leg, nothing like that, we’re talking about my health,” he said, “so I have to be concerned about it.”

Reyes was likely going to remain in the third-slot until Carlos Beltran returned from knee surgery. But now, blood tests stand between him any time soon.

“I don’t want to say unlucky because leg-wise everything feels good,” he said. “But this is different. We’re not talking about an injury on the field.”

Reyes had been the team's lead-off hitter for much of his career. He scored a career-high 122 runs and 19 homers in '06 before setting a personal-best 78 stolen bases in '07.

The Mets are a 20/1 favorite in the MLB Odds to win the World Series in 2010, behind National League-favorite Philadelphia (6/1).