New York Mets Assitant GM John Ricco spoke with reporters on Wednesday afternoon to address the team’s constant injury woes as well as the medical staff and the Mike Barwis training camp.
With Robert Gsellman going on the disabled list Wednesday, the Mets have now put 16 players on the DL including six starting pitchers.
According to Spotrac, the Mets have spent the second most money this year on players on the disabled list at $22,137,473 million behind on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Despite the Mets injury woes, Ricco isn’t worried. “This isn’t a problem that’s unique to the Mets,” he said. “If you look around the game right now, there’s almost an epidemic of injuries. That’s something all teams are dealing with, is trying to keep their players on the field.”
One of the key areas that fans and media have focused on recently for the Mets continued injury corners is senior strength and conditioning advisor, Mike Barwis.
In 2011, Barwis started the company Barwis Methods after working in college sports since 2003 for West Virginia and Michigan. He was appointed the Mets Senior Advisor for Strength and Conditioning on October 2, 2014. In his role, oversees the major league and minor league strength and conditioning.
The methods by Barwis have come under scrutiny for recently with a large portion of the Mets injuries being muscle related. However, Ricco nor Sandy Alderson are ready to place any blame on Barwis.
“We’ve seen a lot of positives,” Ricco said about the Barwis camp held in the offseason in Port St. Lucie. “He works with a lot of our players up and down the organization. A lot of the minor leaguers and a lot of the players we’ve developed over the years who have gotten to the big leagues, I think are due to some of the things he’s done with them, both during the season and in the offseason.”
