Alderson Pushes Johan Santana Return To All Star Break

According to Sandy Alderson, who was a guest on WFAN today, Johan Santana will return around the All-Star break.

This comes about two weeks after he first reported that Santana would return in June. He didn’t cite any new information, but it’s obvious he must have come across some information that made him push Santana’s return over a month later than he first reported.

Johan underwent surgery to repair an anterior capsule tear in his left shoulder in October.

Original Post: 12/10 10:30 AM

In the last week, with all of our attentions focused on the Winter Meetings and adding new players, one bit of good news that may have slipped under the radar was the injury update since Johan Santana had shoulder surgery last season.

Adam Rubin of ESPN New York posted this on his blog on Wednesday.

“A second official with knowledge of Johan Santana’s rehab plan said the left-hander originally intended to pick up a baseball for the first time following shoulder surgery in late January. But a quicker recovery so far has led to a decision to begin tossing early next month instead.”

Usually, most Mets fans have been trained to be prepared for setbacks and delays when it comes to player injuries, so needless to say this is a most welcome surprise.

I’m not going to start raising my expectations that he will be back sooner than June, which was time frame Sandy Alderson speculated last week, but it does make me hopeful that he will recover by at least that time.

If somehow, we can get one of our current starters to really step up and pitch like an ace until Johan returns, maybe we can play some meaningful baseball in September after all… and when we least expected it.

A lot of other things would need to go right of course, first and foremost healthy and productive seasons from Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Jason Bay. But if that does happen, I do believe with everything else we now have, these Mets can make this season more competitive than many Mets fans believe.

Get back soon Johan.