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?
