Delgado Latest to Need Hip Surgery

Mike Lowell, Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez can welcome Carlos Delgado to the club.

Delgado, the Mets' first baseman and a key cog to their linuep, joins the other three by needing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip (right in Delgado's case).

There is no timetable for Delgado's return, although Rodriguez was able to come back in six weeks.

Delgado, who turns 37 next month, had not played since May 10. But the Mets waited until Saturday to place him on the disabled list in the hope that physical therapy would eventually get him back on the field.

The Mets are 4-3 since Delgado went on the DL and he's obviously a significant loss. Delgado was batting .298 (28-for-94) with four home runs and 23 RBI in 26 games. Without him, the Mets plan to rotate Fernando Tatis, Jeremy Reed and Daniel Murphy at first base before exploring options outside the organization.

That's not an adequate replacement. Delgado struggled for the first 12 weeks of 2008, but about a year ago he got hot and never cooled off. As he hit .308 with a 1.018 OPS, 27 homers and 80 RBI in his final 84 games, the Mets went 51-34 (although collapsed again down the stretch). Delgado went from having people wonder if he should be released to top-10 in MVP voting.

The Mets went into Monday's games fourth in the NL in runs scored, but to keep that up they will need others to pick up the slack for Delgado.