OK, so the conference call is over. If you missed it, it featured a whole lot of Mets’ assistant GM John Ricco dancing around questions for legal reasons, but the most interesting tidbit of information gleaned was that, essentially, the high ranking members of the Mets’ front office didn’t know Carlos Beltran was having surgery until after he was having surgery.
Ricco stressed numerous times the Mets’ current issue with Beltran stemmed from the team’s desire to be “afforded the right” to seek a third opinion on his knee before he resorted to an operation that could jeopardize the start of his season.
But Beltran, presumably with the guidance of his agent Scott Boras, opted to undergo surgery without first consulting his team.
And that’s, well, it certainly falls under the general umbrella of “not cool.” They’re paying him a whole lot of money to play center field and hit home runs, and that probably buys them the right to understand how he is thinking and to know when he’s about to go under the knife.
Still, it’s impossible to entirely fault Beltran, given the way things went for the Mets in 2009.
Ricco urged reporters to view the team’s injuries on “a case-by-case basis,” but since the problems were epidemic last season, one can understand Beltran’s impatience. Especially since he was already in Colorado with the knee specialist, and especially since the third opinion and the internal discussions and all the red tape that went along with that would probably mean tacking on another month before he could play again.
Ken Davidoff asked the best question of the call, in my opinion, wondering why the Mets would opt to make their grievance with Beltran public. Ricco ably answered that the team wanted to be honest, and that they were disappointed in their player and at how the process broke down.
In truth, it seems as though the Mets were a bit blindsided. That’s bad in isolation, but it’s downright terrible if they’ve fostered some sort of environment wherein players do not trust the intentions of or yield to the expectations of their team’s front office.
Of course, I don’t know that’s the case. Maybe Beltran is just one player gone rogue, and the Mets are only reacting accordingly. But maybe he only grew frustrated with a bureaucracy that seems to have failed him and his teammates again and again, and took matters into his own hands because he felt it was the swiftest way to get himself healthy and back on the field to help his team.
Tedquarters 
I can understand why he and Boras wanted the surgery now. He envisioned struggling through spring, trying “rehab excercises”, start the season, feel worse, end up needing the surgery anyway in April or May, and missing most or all off 2010.
Now, he is approaching free agency. It would be a tough sell, even for Boras to net a long term deal for a guy who has missed two of his past 3 seasons.
Do the surgery now, get it fixed, play most of the season, it willl look better on his stat sheet come FA time.
Sigmund and Ted…I completely agree with that assessment, it makes sense, and it could be the most realistic. But my biggest problem with that is…why did the Mets not share the same mentality?
It’s becoming clearer now that there was something wrong with his knee. And going the conservative route, just like they did in 2009, could potentially just delay the inevitable, which is ineffectiveness due to pain and/or a more obvious injury requiring surgery. And at that point, like you said, he ends up missing more time over the course of the season, yet is able to play in Opening Day.
It’s very ugly when it has come to the point where I almost trust Beltran more than I do the Mets Front Office.
Almost?
Yeah, my trust is with Beltran. He’s demonstrated ample willingness to work within their system. He wanted to have surgery last summer, they wanted to “manage” the knee.
Beltran plays through pain. We know that. I think they were asking him to do that again to a degree that he didn’t feel was possible, and presumably had the surgery to try and get as close to a full season as he could.
The mets need to to make it look as though the team has a shot going into the season, and another significant injury hurts that effort. It’s in their ticket-selling interests to get the first half of the season out of him, and then if he goes down, he goes down. They have no credibility here anymore, to my mind.
Thats what is most frustrating. This is like taking a Sociology 101 class and being appalled at the realities in life. I don’t want to believe it, I want to believe my team is doing everything they can to be playing baseball in October yet it seems everything is driven by image and the bottom line.
I trust Beltran here because while the underlying motive may be to be good enough/healthy enough for another contract, that actually is a good thing for us. Because it means he performed well enough, which means he did successful things for our team, which means, best case, our team was successful.
The Mets are like Ted’s potential-Craigslist-Band.
If I correctly recall, his knee even bothered him when he came back in Sept. It was obvious that something wasn’t right. Plus, there was no reason for him to come back.
Between Santana’s elbow, Church’s concussions, Perez’s knee and Beltran, the Mets have shown no ability to handle injuries.
Beltran going rogue would seem to indicate players think the Mets chosen expert and associated medical staff are incapable of a right decision because A) they’re incompetent or B) they’re crooked.
I’m not sure whats worse, but neither say a whole lot good about the current Mets administration.
Imagine if its B? I mean the fallout from that would be epic. The Mets FO couldn’t possible dodge that one.
There is this prevailing thought among fans that the mets should have taken care of this last year, or should have just done this surgery last season, implying the mets doctors chose the wrong course. But correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t he also see his own guy Steadman last season around the all star break, at which point he just recomended rest and no surgery just as the mets doctors did?
Perhaps. But what if Beltran having surgery earlier this offseason was the most viable way to go, but the Mets wanted him to hold off, even though it would’ve meant being ready for spring training? To me, that would look like the team was once again thinking about their bottom line before their team’s chance of winning. I don’t know for sure that this was the scenario, but from what I’ve been hearing/reading, it’s very possible. And that’s just wrong. I mean, how many fans didn’t wonder why Omar and the Wilpons, knowing Putz MIGHT need surgery to clean out his elbow at some point, didn’t just ask him to go ahead with it since he’d have the WHOLE offseason to heal and get ready for the season. Something just doesn’t feel right. Too many of this team’s decisions seemed to betray their true creed, which is to make money, which comes from selling those tickets, especially season tickets, and if fans see that certain players are having surgery, that may affect that decision by the time the deadline passes. Or if players like Reyes take the more sensible path with their injuries, while it may actually help the team in the long run, the Wilpons, rather, seem willing to take a chance or to put blinders on, and tell fans that the player will be fine, it’s just day to day, thereby taking the riskier route (the whole penny wise/pound foolish scenario, or an “ounce of prevention”…) etc, while the player is risking further injury. I mean, through all this, one question keeps popping into my head: if this Steadman doctor is such a highly respected and sought after specialist in his field, the guy who PIONEERED microfracture surgery (I know that’s not what Beltran had), then what do the Wilpons think they are going to find out that Steadman couldn’t have already told them? It just seems like there’s more to the Wilpon’s decision making process than meets the eye. And whatever that is, it doesn’t seem like it has the team’s winning or the fans’ faith in mind. And if so, for a NY team, with such a large and passionate and loyal fanbase, that’s a huge shame.
With all due respct mags, your post has way to many assumptions and speculation with with no proof of it. And why are you even mentioning micro fracture surgery? Thats no what he had and not what he needs.
Huh? I know he didn’t have microfracture surgery. I just said that. I was showing that this doctor was one of the top knee doctors in the world, so what did the Mets think a 3rd opinion would get them? I think that was pretty obvious. As for the rest, sure it’s speculation. But so is so much of this story, as well as what the Mets do in general. However, based on all the things we’ve seen or have been reported over the past few years, I think it’s more than possible. In fact, I personally think there’s a very good chance something like this is happening. And I’m far from the only one. And since i’m only a fan, and not a jounalist or media member, I have every right to post my thoughts and feelings. Besides, it’s not like there isn’t merit to my points. You may think this isn’t what’s happening, but I would think that at least you could recognize that with the history of this team the past few years, that what I said is actually entirely possible, even reasonable.