Picking Up Right Where We Left Off

Written by Matt Ryan | 15 January 2010

You can't even make this stuff up.  Not only are the Mets going to be without Carlos Beltran for most of April, they have successfully embarrassed themselves as an organization, and created a rift with one of the best players in baseball.

Obviously, the lack of communication between Beltran and the organization is alarming.  But I'm even more upset that Beltran didn't have this surgery months ago.  This leads my to believe that the Mets doctors have absolutely no idea what they're doing.  According to Craig Carton, Beltran had 25 pieces of loose cartilage in his knee.  I'm no doctor, but I think its pretty obvious that this requires some form of surgery.

Based on Carton's account of the story, which can be read here, the Mets knew Beltran was having issues with his knee, and both sides agreed that surgery was probably the best option.  Beltran was told to meet with team physician Dr. Altchek, and give the Mets brass a few days to think things over.  But Altchek told Beltran that there was no reason to wait, and the procedure should be done as soon as possible.  He referred Beltran to Dr. Steadman  (the James Andrews of knee injuries), and he set up surgery for 7am the next morning.  The Wilpons and Omar Minaya are in Arizona for the owners meetings, so there was no time to think things over.  Apparently, Dr. Steadman did get in contact with the Mets, because otherwise he couldn't legally operate on Beltran.  Carton also claims that Beltran called Minaya right before the procedure, and Minaya said he was on board.

If this account is true, and I tend to trust Carton as a reliable source, the Mets are making a big deal out of nothing.  Because if they did feel surgery was the best course of action, I don't understand why they would spend a few days thinking things over.  Every extra day they wait is an extra game Beltran could miss.  I feel like there's more to this story, and I'm going to reserve final judgement until we know all the details.  But this is just more bad press for the Mets, and I think it's pretty obvious that Beltran's relationship with the Mets is now strained.

Added by Benny B.

And if you thought it possibly couldn't get any worse, think again.  The incredible Omar Minaya (which is how I am going to be referring to him from now on since he is a circus act) added his two cents by saying he did NOT discuss the surgery with Beltran, and thus did not know about it.

Sheesh.  Can this guy just STFU already!  Or better yet, just fire him like he should have been last year or even the year before. He is a lame duck which is why they did not turn to Omar to give the initial press conference.  I have got to believe that he is slated to be fired soon, and if I had to guess, they are simply waiting to fill out their roster so potential free agents wouldn't get scared away by a team in turmoil.  Well, maybe that was the plan, but now that this fiasco has taken place, what are they waiting for?  In fact, it would probably be better to fire somebody at this juncture than alienating the best player on your team and the biggest sports agent in the game.  I mean, even if the mets "win" this battle, they will lose and I can't believe nobody in this organization can see this.

Dave Cameron put it best in a post over at Fangraphs:

Ricco’s handling of the conference call only goes to further confuse the chain of authority in Queens. Minaya is clearly not in charge, as the Wilpons continue to exercise more than a usual amount of influence on the front office. But they won’t willingly admit to running things either, leading to a nebulous power situation where there is simply no clear leader.

This is dysfunction on a large stage. Much like the last days of Jim Bowden’s reign in Washington, you have to wonder whether they’ll be able to escape growing evidence of a lack of control in the front office – never mind the questionable decisions Minaya has made spending the Wilpons’ money.

At this point, they just need to start over. The current situation isn’t working and it’s getting worse, not better. The team has a new ballpark in a huge metropolitan area and some terrific pieces to build around – they should be contenders. They should be well-run. But they aren’t. It’s time for some wholesale changes before things get any worse, if that’s possible.

Apparently, it is possible Dave...