Alderson: Injury rep rips hurt

ATLANTA — Sandy Alderson thinks the Mets’ reputation is unfair. The Mets GM reiterated his confidence in the team’s medical staff Monday and said that the team is unfairly criticized for how they handle injury information.

“We get criticized for injuries probably disproportionately to the circumstances,” Alderson said “If I say somebody is going to be back in 10 days and he’s back in 15. . . do you think there is a motivation on my part? What would be the motivation? I know he won’t be back for 15, but I’ll say 10. What would be my motivation for that? I try to give everybody the best current information that I have, if that changes, it changes.

“That’s sort of my on-going premise. The info I have today, I’ll provide. But I don’t have any real motive to be overly optimistic, because I know what is at the other end of that overly optimistic projection.”

Alderson bristled at the obvious questions about the Mets history with injuries in the wake of news that Noah Syndergaard had suffered a partially torn lat Sunday. Syndergaard had been dealing with discomfort in his biceps/shoulder area and scratched from his start earlier in the week. It also came on the heels of the Mets having to put Yoenis Cespedes on the disabled list with a strained hamstring after he missed three games with an issue in the same hamstring.

“In both situations, the question is asked, ‘Can you play,’ and we understand in some circumstance that a player isn’t going to answer completely honestly, but at some point you have to sort of merge his answer with your experience and other input and sometimes you say OK he can go. Other times he can’t,” Alderson said.

“At the same time, we can’t put somebody on the disabled list who says he is not hurt.”

GETTING GRANDY GOING

No one was happier to see the calendar turn on the first month of the season than Curtis Granderson, who was 1-for-29 over the previous eight games. However, after going 0-for-3 Monday, Granderson is hitting .124.

And despite the outfielder drawing a walk in the five-run fifth, his .177 on-base percentage is concerning. The walk was just his sixth of the season.

“I’m a little concerned he’s not getting on base like he normally does,” Terry Collins said.