Sandy: As injuries pile up, time to taketa risks
After another season filled with ininjuries, the Mets overhauled their mmedical staff this past offseason.
That hasn’t stopped their disababled list from getting overcrcrowded already just 53 games into 202018, but now the franchise is reththinking the way it handles those ininjuries once they have already hahappened.
“Honestly, sometimes I think wwe’re a little too cautious with how we approach injuries,” general manager Sandy Alderson said ThThursday before the Mets’ 5-1 loss agagainst the Cubs at Citi Field. “… WWe, as an industry I guess, but certatainly here, we tend to be overly cacautious. We don’t want it to happepen again. We don’t want a setback. ButBu honestly, I think at some point you have to take the risk of a setback.”
As off TThursday, the Mets had 11 players on the disabled list with varying degrees of injuries — including three who have landed there in the last four days. Five more have already come off stints on the DL this season.
The Mets named a new head trainer in January and created a new position of director of performance and sports science, and though Alderson said he was happy with their work, the injury bug has not gone away.
“From my standpoint, obviously not happy with the injury record, but at the same time, for the most part, these injuries have been the non-soft-tissue injuries that unfortunately occur from time to time,” Alderson said. “What we really are focusing on is not really prevention but managing the rehabilitation and getting these players back.”
Guarding against public criticism of how the team deals with injuries “is a natural response,” but Alderson said he believes being more aggressive could help the Mets. He said he had to look at all portions of a rehab and determine whether any of them were longer than needed. If that results in five players coming back five days early, and one facing a setback that costs him 10 more days, “you’re still ahead 15 days,” Alderson said.
“And by the way, we gotta play the game,” Alderson said. “You gotta hit the sweet spot that you’re not too overly cautious but you’re prudent. I think maybe that’s something where we need to focus a little more attention. That’s what I’m doing.”