The Mets’ top catching prospect according to Baseball Prospectus – and the centerpiece of last winter’s big trade with Toronto that sent R.A. Dickey packing – Travis d’Arnaud will probably never win the lottery or cash in at the race track.

He has terrible luck, which has once again put him on the shelf.

Last year, while playing at Triple-A Las Vegas – then of the Blue Jays organization – d’Arnaud went down with a ligament tear in his left knee in the midst of one of the strongest seasons in all of minor league baseball. How did it happen? He slid into second base on a routine play.

On Wednesday, the youngster sustained a non-displaced fracture of the first metatarsal bone in his left foot, after being hit by a foul ball, again playing for Las Vegas, who are now the Triple-A team of the Mets.

He is scheduled to fly to New York for a re-examination on Friday, which will determine if he needs surgery. He’s currently getting around in a walking boot.

Maybe his bad luck has something to do with Las Vegas, or maybe it’s just a coincidence that he keeps getting injured playing for the 51s, but one thing that is certain is this absolutely stinks for the Mets if he requires surgery.

The number six prospect in baseball as per MLB.com’s 2013 Prospect Watch was definitely going to be playing in the Majors by mid-summer and this injury could potentially push back the start date.

Although John Buck is off to a tremendous start, Mets fans everywhere were finally excited about the promotion of a big league prospect that has the potential to share the face of the franchise moniker with David Wright and perhaps Matt Harvey – if he continues to dominate hitters like he currently is – down the road.

The not too distant future was beginning to look bright, but now Mets fans are going to have to be patient and take some deep breaths.

There hasn’t been a catching prospect with this much hype since Buster Posey and baseball fans everywhere know exactly what good ole’ Buster has done for the Giants and what happened to that team when he broke his leg.

If d’Arnaud requires surgery and Buck cools off to what fans should expect of him, the progress of the organization will be stunted and the Mets may have to keep Buck around all season long rather then get as much as they can out of him via trade at the summer deadline.

The Mets certainly won’t trust Anthony Recker with the starting job if a nice deal arises for Buck and no one else is waiting in the wings with any kind of hype or experience except for Landon Powell and Juan Centeno and combining one of those guys with Recker just doesn’t sound like it would do the trick behind the plate for the Mets.

The timing of this injury is terrible and what are the Mets to do if something happens to Buck?

It’s time to kneel down beside your beds with that Mets duvet cover and pray that d’Arnaud’s injury isn’t as serious as it sounds or hope that Buck stays healthy and continues to do what he’s doing out on that field, otherwise the catching scenario behind the plate for the organization could get ugly real quick.

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