Lagares rejoins Mets; Duda back today

NEW YORK — The Mets are growing healthier en masse. By the end of the weekend, they will have three new players on their roster, including two they once feared lost for the season. In addition to Sunday’s starter, Jacob deGrom, the Mets welcomed back outfielder Juan Lagares on Friday, and expect to do the same for Lucas Duda on Saturday.

Duda, one of the Mets’ productive sluggers the past three seasons, has not played since May 20 due to a stress fracture in his lower back. Though Duda has been rehabbing at the team’s Spring Training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he has not appeared in any rehab or instructional league games. As such, he will return cold to a Mets club that expects to use him exclusively off the bench.

“I think it’s a little unfair to ask Lucas Duda to carry us, to get in the middle of that lineup and do what we always hope and expect for him to do,” manager Terry Collins said. “This game’s hard. When you haven’t played it in four months and you’re coming back without any game at-bats at all, that’s a lot to ask. We’ll try to get him in there in the right circumstances, and if we feel that he can help …

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