I’m still trying to process this whole J.J. Putz thing.
The Mets’ much-heralded eighth-inning guy who wasn’t, the dude for whom they traded a slew of young players, came out yesterday and said that the Mets never gave him a physical immediately after the trade, despite the bone spur in his elbow that hampered his 2008 season. Putz called the exam he received during Spring Training “a formality,” and insisted that the Mets convinced him to pitch through pain rather than undergoing surgery recommended by Dr. David Altcheck.
The Mets, in turn, released this statement:
In our review of the player’s medical records in the acquisition of J.J. Putz, we were aware that he had a bone spur before the trade. He had the same condition in 2008 and was able to pitch with it. J.J. underwent an exam during Spring Training and an additional exam and MRI before he was cleared to play in last year’s World Baseball Classic. Unfortunately the spur did flare up again in May, and he missed the rest of the season.
OK. For what it’s worth, Putz did spend time on the disabled list in 2008 with an injury in the elbow, probably the type of thing worth checking out when giving up so many players. But to the Mets’ credit, Putz did pitch pretty well after returning from the injury in late July, so most likely the Mets were guilty, once again, of looking only at the bright side.
It’s worth noting that Putz stands only to gain by throwing the Mets under the bus now. The Amazins have become league-wide whipping boys, so blaming the team for his struggles in 2009 is probably a pretty easy way for Putz to put his best foot forward for his new fanbase in Chicago.
After all, if Putz was in so much pain, why’d he agree to pitch in the World Baseball Classic?
Still, it’s hard to give the Mets the benefit of the doubt in the situation, since everything Putz says seems to jive with everything else we’ve heard about the way the Mets handled injuries last season.
More of the same. It’s Groundhog Day.
Anyway, while it’s certainly bad, it’s also certainly last year’s issue. It reflects poorly on Mets management, for sure, but just about everything from last season already reflects poorly on Mets management. As Matt Cerrone just pointed out to me, the real concern will be when this keeps happening, now that they’ve promised to make changes.
Still, that Putz was injured — and that the Mets knew he was injured — at the time of the deal only thrusts that trade upward in the ranks of epic Omar Minaya failures. Few criticized the deal at the time — I was ambivalent — but the most valuable cog the Mets ultimately got out of the trade was Sean Green.
And — and I’m not sure if the credit should go to Seattle’s scouting or Seattle’s good fortune here — one of the Minor Leaguers the Mets gave up in the deal, Ezequiel Carrera, emerged as a prospect. The outfielder posted a .441 on-base percentage at Double-A last year, and could be better than Gary Matthews Jr. right now.
Tedquarters 
Ted, both you and I are better than Gary Matthews Jr. and I’m strictly softball now a days.
Have they promised to make changes? I don’t know if they still believe physicals aren’t particularly important, and I hope for Bay and our sakes that he got a thorough one, given reports about Boston’s concerns. But they most certainly still (try to) ignore recommendations for surgery, preferring to have the player (Beltran) play through pain until the injury shuts him down entirely, by which time they’ll hopefully have sold quite a lot of tickets for the year.
Hey, but selling tickets is a good thing, isn’t it?
But hasn’t it already kept happening? The Beltran situation seems very similar to me, with the team wanting to delay surgery, etc.
Good point. I don’t know. The Beltran situation is so murky and bizarre that I’m unwilling to entirely say they screwed it up yet. Based on their history, it’s a safe assumption, though.
Ted, also remember that this was Reyes third time as a Met when he got injured all related to the legs and I don’t know if they have the same doctors and trainers.
That’s fair. But to me, any time you publicly call out your best player via press conference, you’ve screwed up.
Say what you will about Boras, but there’s no question he always has his clients’ best interests at heart (and by extension, his own) when dealing with health.
As you say, given the Mets’ myriad issues when dealing with injured players (Church & Reyes in the past, Beltran this year), it’s hard to trust them on this one.
Having Reyes put off surgery to rehab instead and try to come back for meaningless game is also similar.
Ok, a few things really makes me question Putz…
1. Ok, so he didn’t have a physical before the trade. I’m sure they looked at his medical records. If there was something in there that the Mariners didn’t reveal, the Mariners would be in a load of s@#$ right now. They probably still should’ve given him a physical, but given the Mets track record, I would trust the Mariners doctors over the Mets doctors anyway.
2. When Putz left the Mariners, I’m pretty sure he disparaged them a good amount too. Didn’t he go off on how they weren’t team players and how the Mets are so different?
Yeah, I understand the Mets are having a pattern of this kind of treatment. Somehow, this seems like a player trying to excuse his piss poor pitching (alliteration!).
What it sounds like to me is that when the media gets an idea that they could print an item over and over again, and try to get way more out of it then they should have, then they usually do it. But that usually happens when they are going after a weakness or a pretense of one, and if need be they help the pretense along as the articles lingers on, and on. So going after the Mets helps makes it an easy days work for them.
So beating up the Mets owners is their game plan, at least until the team starts to play like winners.
I betcha every owner of the teams could be cut down one way or another, if the media saw fit to do it.
So they saw a thread of weakness in the Mets, AND THEY ALSO WANTED TO DO IT.
Think how easy a days work it is for a sports writter when they could stay in bed for a few days as they shift this story around in different articles all of the time.
There is def some truth to what all of you here are saying. The media has def found a weakness and is just now pounding in it. Its like in the old WWF when Hulk Hogan would have a ‘leg injury’ and Sgt. Sluaghter would then go to work on his knee over and over with a steel chair.
Also with regards to Putz, some of this sounds like sour grapes. He sucked and his reputation took a hit, as he looks like a bum when the media is killing Omar for making this trade, He’s of course just trying to deflect all the blame to the Mets.
At the end of the day, he was the one with the injury. The Mets didnt cause the bone spurs. His season would have been a wreck wether he had the surgery in May like he did, or in ST.
According to Putz the pain didn’t become a problem till April/May, well after the WBC. So it’s possible when the mets doctors gave him the okay for the WBC and he wasn’t pitching through pain for it.
Also there were definitely red flags on Putz’s 2008 season, his ld% rate rose pretty significantly and his bb rate skyrocketed, so it’s not like he pitched with through the problem in 08 with no reasons for concern.
Yikes, good point on the WBC. My bad. I misinterpreted “from the beginning,” I guess.
As for the ld% and bb-rates, another great point. I hate to suggest the Mets don’t look at stuff like that. The Mets must look at stuff like that, right? It can’t all be about saying “we’ve got two closers, the bullpen is fixed, please buy your tickets now,” I hope. But like you said, even after the injury, the rates were up from his career norms. More for the “bad” column.