May
6
2011

Mets Should Take It Very Slow With Santana

An article by Brandon Butler

Last night during my interview with Kerel Cooper of On The Black, we discussed Johan Santana and his timetable for return. I said that if this team continues to play under .500, I believe they need to hold him off as long as they can.

In fact, if the Mets continue to play poorly in the coming months, they may even want to consider shelving him for the rest of the season.

It’s simply not worth bringing him back just to watch him either re-injure himself or suffer some sort of setback that could potentially shelve him for the rest of the season.

What would the Mets have to gain by having Santana rush through his rehab just so he could meet a target date for a return that had been established long before he was even able to throw a baseball?

The last thing we need is too rush him back for that early July timetable only to see him get back in the same predicament he was in before.

Hey… What Mets fan wouldn’t love to see a healthy Santana back on the mound this season? I can understand that and I totally relate to you.

But, all I’m saying is to approach this with extreme caution and to do what is best for the Mets in 2012 and beyond, especially if this season ends up continuing as it has with the Mets sitting in last place.

Don’t bring him back at 80% effectiveness or 85% or 95%. If it takes all the way until September for him to be at 100%, then so be it.

Let’s do away with the old way of doing things and committ to handling these player rehabs better and “smarter” than we did before.

About the Author: Brandon Butler

Brandon is currently a MMO Minor League Staff Writer. He is also the co-host of the Mets Madness Podcast on Talkshoe Radio. Brandon lives in Hornell, NY.

4 Comments + Add Comment

Mike.BTB May 7, 2011 at 10:08 am

Take it slow with Johan? They should move with the speed of plate tectonics with him. There’s no reason to bring him back at all this season, unless he truly is 101%.
- Brandon Butler May 7, 2011 at 10:13 am
  
  Thats pretty much what i was saying, without using plate tectonics as an example LOL. I don’t see any reason to rush him abut unless this team somehow magically picks up the pace, and is leading the NL East in September, which is not going to happen, i think.
  - Des May 7, 2011 at 12:21 pm
    
    I’ve echoed the same position ever since the extent of his injury was made known. But the Mets and their lead people don’t show the same concern you and Mike.BTB do. After all they want to keep the fan based juiced up and possibly put more butts in the empty seats, even if it’s only because of an unwarranted expectation. Witnessing the Mets lack of caution, at least to the press, brings home the point that the business of baseball is at least as important as the sport of baseball.
- METS62FAN May 8, 2011 at 12:37 pm
  
  Mike, Brandon, wake up & smell the coffee are u willing to nerglect all the rest of this team’s many need just to continue payiong an obviously disappointing acquisition like Santana at the obscene rate of $25M per disfunctional,dillusional season?
  To date he’s rec’d $82.5M to contribute a 40-25 record while failing to exceed a mere 16Ws in any of his 3 seasons(are we likely to field a stronger team than ’08′s before his deal expires in ’13?). We should coddle him longer so we have the privledge of paying the additional 72M he’s due for ’12 & ’13 assuming we’ve the good sense to buyout ’14 @ 5.5M rather than waste another 25M on this supposed Rolls Royce parked in the ghetto of Flushing?
  
  Not his fault? look at his superior ERA & WHIP? He gets no run support?
  HORSE***T!
  Bad excuses for a TRUE ACE. A TRUE #1. By definition a #1 can’r expect much in the way of run support as his opponent on the mound most often than not is his peer #1 doing his job in ERA & WHIP. Be it Smoltz, in ’08, or Halladay or Sabathia, Johnson., All too often Johan has come up short in the zeroes race against his opposing number. All too frequently lerads he’s been given are squandered.
  Whether it’s the overall toll of his injuries, surgeries or rehabs he certainly hasn’t lived up to his billing as the “BEST LH SP IN MLB” as he was deemed when acquired.
  
  Run support deficits are a journeyman’s excuse for failure, not an Aces’. #1s are supposed to out duel the other #1 from the competition & as such continue to post zeroes for more innings than the “other guy” can. Is there any doubt as to the outcome when Johan faces Fl’s Johnson, Phl’s Halladay or NYY’s Sabathia? Certainly he’s had his exceptopnal games; but has anyone considered even lowly Trachsel gave us closer attempts at the elusive NO-NO than this ulticompetitor has managed.
  
  Wgy rush him? to trade him! Over the past 4 seasons I would prefer our team be in front of him than behind him, I’m sad to say.
  Aces are supposed to be at their very best under the most difficult competitive situations eventually triumphing. These typically occur when pitted against your most hated blood rivals; but unfortunately Santana has chosen to be at his most susceptible against these very opponents having saved his 2 worst outings for Phl & NYY while Atlanta salivates at his presence on the mound as they beat him as if his name was Perez or Zambrano.
  
  SORRY; BUT THE KING IS NAKED! THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES! OPEN YOUR EYES, IT’S A SHAM PURPOTRATED BY THE PRESS.

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