1
2010
Mets Told Reliever To Conceal Injury
An article by Hojo's Mojo
Former Mets reliever J.J. Putz has just stoked the flames of controversy once again in how the Mets and their medical staff handled injuries last season. A medical staff, I might add, that still remains in place unchanged.
Speaking out for the first time since being traded to the Mets over a year ago, Putz said, “It was a mess from the beginning”. He was referring to the fact that something was wrong with his elbow and the way it all went down.
“When the trade went down last year, I never really had a physical with the Mets,” said Putz. “I had the bone spur (in the right elbow). It was discovered the previous year in Seattle, and it never got checked out by any other doctors until I got to spring training, and the spring training physical is kind of a formality. It was bugging me all through April, and in May I got an injection. It just got to the point where I couldn’t pitch. I couldn’t throw strikes, my velocity was way down.”
Even more dismaying is the new revelation that the Mets told Putz to stay quiet about the injured elbow immediately after they acquired him. He was prohibited from discussing it with the media.
“I knew that I wasn’t right. I wasn’t healthy. The toughest part was having to face the media and tell them that you feel fine, even though you know there’s something wrong and they don’t want you telling them that you’re banged up.”
By the time June, rolled around it was clear that Putz needed surgery and that the rest of his season would be wiped out.
“That’s when (the Mets) told me that I blew my elbow out. That was kind of a shock because I never felt any pain in it.”
This new allegation raises even more concerns and more questions.
1. Why did they make the Putz trade, knowing fully well he had an injured elbow and that his velocity was down?
2. Why was J.J. Putz told by Mets officials to conceal the injury, even when the media questioned him about his loss of velocity and his poor outings?
3. Have the Mets asked any other players to conceal their injury and who are those players?
This story isn’t going away anytime soon, and it makes you wonder who really dropped the ball on the Beltran surgery, and if the Mets were being truthful with us?
About the Author: Rob Johnson
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Just unbelievable. If this is true–especially on the heels of Church, Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, even Maine and Perez for that matter–this whole front office should be terminated!
tom, fyi, wasn’t similar type complaints the reason why one of omar’s first actions after being hirede was replacing the then Medical staff, as this issue did not exist in Montreal; but had existed in NY
prior to Omar, wouldn’t that indicate the issue resides with a non-baseball official with significant power withing the frontoffice not subject to change by Minaya? Wonder who?
joel scherman made a good point today–I have been saying all along that this is the front office’s fault–the Hospital for Special Surgery works for three other New York teams–no problems at any of them. Draw your own conclusions. If something is going wrong, there is a good chance the mets FO is involved.
That shouldn’t have been voided last year but this is Mets Management trying to make it look like Putz was injury free until the middle of last season when he had bone chips in his pitching elbow. Nice way to get yourself fired Omar.
As for Beltran–it was in all the papers that Beltran wanted to do surgery last summer–microfracture possibly. The team wanted him to play through it. Clearly he was not going to play through pain again this year. What kind of people are these guys running the organization?
Guys who are obviously desperate to save their jobs working for incompetent owners and fans who can’t handle the truth!
This is absolutely outrageous. I cant believe something like this can happen in this day and age. Somebody should lose his job over this, and the players union should immediately ivestigate the matter and file a grievance.
Truly strange and almost unbelievable!!!
Given the history of the past few years, it makes demand that the ownership and the front office change completely. Jeff, get rid of Omar. Fred, blood may be thicker than water, but get rid of Jeff.
The credibility of the entire top of the Mets organization is shot. The Bronx Zoo has nothing on the Queens Quacks!!!
Truly bizarre, almost unbelievable.
The Mets front office credibility is shot!
Jeff, fire Omar.
Fred, then fire Jeff!
The Bronx Zoo has nothing on the Queens Quacks!
It’s time for the fans to get their team back.
Let the revolution begin!!
Then Freddy should look in a mirror and fire himself!
The only reason this would make sense is if the Mets were going to trade Putz, which they didn’t.
Sure, the Mets front office is a joke – it has to be – Jeff Wilpon has his fingerprints all over it. He is an incompetant fool who’s only there because Daddy owns the club.
But having said that, Putz has got to shoulder some of the blame also. After a series of bad performences at the begining of last year, his excuse to the media was “I can’t get it up for a non-saving role”. Now, I know he is now saying that he was told not to discuss the injury – but to come up with that statement instead is truely ridiculous.
There is more to this story then he is telling.
Well, did the Mets do a pre-trade exam on him? Exactly ‘when’ was it determined he had bone chips? ‘What’ was the Mets’ position on the injury at that time? ‘What’ did the Mets say to the media? Is the timeline consistent with the Mets’ position or what Putz is now saying?
Putz is truly a Putz for knowing he had a bone spur and still pitching with it. If I were him I wouldn’t care what the Mets said…I would have gotten taken care of just like Beltran did.
He is one big moron. The mets did not put a gun in his head and made him pitch. He is at fault, just as the mets are.
Who are we to believe Putz or the Met front office? If this is true, and I bet it is, the front office should go NOW!!! Fred Wilpon should really look at this as a consequence of letting your incompentent son run a business he is not suited to run. This organization has lost all creditabilty with the media and, most importantly the fan base. Are we really shocked by Putz’ story? It’s come to this. What a joke. The Mets will never win with this ownership.
I’m expecting the Mets to get lawsuits from Ryan Church (head) Jose Reyes (leg), J.J Putz, and Carlos Beltran (knee) anytime now because the idiot medical staff has probably cost these guys millions upon millions of dollars.
This the same medical staff that causing the Mets to be sued by Yorvit Torrealba. I can’t blame him….they probably caused him millions.
AND
If you believe that nut job Oliver Perez had knee problems last year then I got a pair P.F. flyers for sale that will have you to leap the empire state building in a single bound.
It is of my opinion that the Mets organization is operating out of fear of being critizied by us fans and the Media. There is no other reason for this ineptitude.
Right now, the Mets organization as a whole is a stinking joke. The wrath of Mets fans will come down on them.
I have never seen a professional sports team take a beating like the Mets are in the media. But they brought it on themselves.
Mess after Mess, someone will fall.
I don’t think that we can blame the medical staff with this – the blame falls on the management and staff who told him to stay quiet and who didn’t ask for a true medical to be performed.
I have always gone out of my way to back the management of the team but this last story is absolutely disgraceful. There is no excuse for this if the story holds true (and there is no reason not to believe the story).
Call me a pollyana, but could this be the straw that causes Jeff to fire Omar and Fred to rejigger baseball operations?
Fire Omar! Fire Jeff!
Bring in competence and confidence.
This reeks of the trade that the obviously drunk Jim Duquette made for that Met great Carlos Zambrano. We sure fixed him in 5 minutes didn’t we?
The Mets medical staff let this guy pitch until his arm actually broke on the mound….he walked off never to be seen in a Mets uniform again. Thankfully!
Victor Zambrano…I meant Victor Zambrano!!! I hope my mistake by calling him Carlos Zambranao isn’t an omen and we wind up with an injured Carlos Zambrano..Geez!!
traded to the Rays for Scott Kazmir. That was the worser trade ever.
News Flash: Mets organization is horribly mismanaged.
What happened to the Mets the last three years is what happens to an organization that cannot confront the reality of its shortcomings and thereby creates a gap between appearance and reality. Reality will always catch up and surpass appearances.
Truly, very sad because the organization has some fine pieces and a fan base more loyal, patient and valuable than they would ever know.
Most of the smoke and mirrors is to protect their perception of the almighty dollar, which is how the Wilpons got lured into and scammed by someone like Madoff. Just plain ‘ol greed.
2Cat (Ear-O Shapiro) – I agree that the fan base is loyal and valuable – but patient? That’s a streach.
The media crucifies the mets. Unfortunately in the eyes of the media, they will never be as good as the yankees. Therefore lies like this one are told, so the media doesnt crucify them
What motive could Putz have to lie about this? Sour grapes without any foundation in truth won’t fly very far. So there must be an element of truth to his claims. If that it is the case, then it becomes apparent that Omar went ahead with the trade for the media impact and the effect on stimulating attendance with the fanbase. In other words, they lied to us for revenue and then kept the lie under wraps. this is worthy of an investigation. Should there be an investigation of the investigation of Omar Minaya and investigate what should be done about this investigation which first needs to look at how deep and how high this investigation needs to go as we begin the process of investigation?
Mask, can I request an investigation into your droning on what to me is obvious. u don’t tell your opponents who is & who isn’t available in your pen and u don’t ask for a physical of who u r receiving if you know there’s a spur;but haven’t disclosed a possible pending med issue witrh someone in your pkg(Endy only played 54G as a supposed stasrting outfielder in Seattle) U want a viable conspiracy? I think that ones more logical. JJ’s rendition sounds a tad self serving for a guy who was supposedly disappointed when option not p/u. Word was his agent was calling NYM for offers, if Med staff were that big an issue why would he want to stay? Is he trying to avoid a “can’t play in NY” label? who knows; but staying would’ve been ilogical if his version is 100% true.