METS’ INJURED PRIDE
Club’s history with health is painful
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the wake of Yoenis Cespedes’ hamstring strain, after a similar pattern with a leg injury last season, the Mets really need to do an autopsy on how they handle injuries. Sandy Alderson said that they need to look not only at how they handled the outfielder’s leg issue, but why it happened.
“I was a little disappointed because it was similar to a situation that we had last year. Where we try to keep him active and then simply had to put him on the disabled list. We told ourselves we wouldn’t let that happen again and it happened again,” Alderson said Saturday morning before the Mets’ matinee at Nationals Park.
“But I think that’s the nature of these injuries as well,” Alderson said. “I think the fact that there is a 10-day disabled list as opposed to 15 gave us a little more latitude to try and see if we can get through. We had a number of off days and he was positive. So it’s one of those things. . . but the fact he’s only gone for 10 and not 15 I hope is a positive and that he’ll be back after that 10 day period.”
Alderson also believes Cespedes’ hamstring injury is not as bad as it initially looked, saying Saturday that it showed no serious damage and that the slugger should be able to return early next month.
Still, the Mets’ history of handling injuries has become a recurring macabre joke among Mets fans. The long list of players they have been “not too concerned” with who later ended up missing significant time with what turned out to be a more serious injury, has burned up most of the fans’ trust.
So, when Cespedes pulled up lame running to second base on Thursday, it immediately put the Mets’ handling of Cespedes’ hamstring issue under the microscope.
After all, Cespedes had been pulled from a game April 20 after feeling what he described as “a shock” in his left hamstring. He sat out the three-game weekend series with the Nationals and got two more days of rest with an off day on Monday and a rain out on Tuesday.
In his second game back, he couldn’t walk off the field on his own.
Cespedes himself said the leg felt fine and no player can insert himself back into the lineup without being cleared by the Mets medical and training staff.
Last year, he also tried to play through a leg issue. The Mets tried to manage his quad injury with days off rather than put him immediately on the disabled list. He ended up on the DL anyway in August.
The Mets have to trust their players to tell them when there is an issue and how serious they feel it is.
“All of these decisions are made with feedback from the player,” Alderson said. “It’s not that simple as simply saying we know this and know that. Without taking into account the patient. Which is what the doctors do all the time.”
They did it with Noah Syndergaard again this week. He did not want to have an MRI on his arm after dealing with biceps tendinitis last week. Syndergaard argued that he felt significant improvement on rest and medication, so it did not warrant an MRI.
After throwing Friday and being cleared to start on Sunday, the righthander may be correct. Alderson admitted, however,