The Residue of No Design

"Luck is the residue of design"

-Branch Rickey 1881-1965

I have sure been hearing a lot of complaining from the Mets about their bad injury luck this year.  And you know what, they sure have had an awful lot of injuries.  But, Adam Rubin helps to shed some light on whether these injuries are actually self-inflicted:

The scrutiny of the Mets goes far beyond free spending by a baseball operations department that failed to keep the minor-league system stocked. Questionable medical moves such as last year's decision to fly Church cross-country with a concussion have become commonplace. Still, players expressed full faith in the Hospital for Special Surgery, which provides care to the organization, and instead fault how the organization has used the information it is provided.

A source with ties to the Mets indicated that Beltran is extremely upset that he played for a month with a bone bruise after receiving a cortisone shot. The bone bruise ultimately doubled in size because of a lack of adequate rest, according to the center fielder. Scott Boras eventually had Beltran get a second opinion from doctor Richard Steadman at the Vail, Colo., clinic that performed Alex Rodriguez's hip surgery.

Putz, who ultimately underwent surgery last month to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, had been told by team doctor David Altchek weeks earlier that he needed to immediately have the spur removed, a team source said. Instead, the Mets advocated a cortisone shot. Putz went 0-2 with a blown save and 7.71 ERA in 10 subsequent appearances before needing the procedure anyway.

Similarly, Maine twice has received cortisone shots, and was sped ahead of the doctor's recommendation, only to be set back, a source said.

Sources say the Players Association is concerned enough to have started asking questions, although spokesman Greg Bouris declined to comment on the Mets' injuries.

"The Players Association is always concerned about player safety and injuries, but beyond that we have no comment as it relates to specific teams or individuals," Bouris said.

The funniest thing about the "suck it up, Beltran" philosophy of the Mets is that I keep thinking back to this post by the Great Joe Posnanski mocking Steve Phillips' criticisms of Beltran lack of gamer-ness or whatever imaginary flaw Phillips attributed to Beltran... the guy was playing with a deteriorating bone bruise!  And, playing well!

The fact that the Mets need the player's agent to step in to drive proper medical attention to the issue is really amazing - you would think the team would want to protect their asset.  For injuries, both the agent and the team's interest should be perfectly aligned.

Sadly, however, as sports medicine becomes the new vanguard for forward thinking teams to address, the... how do I say... dumber?  teams are left far behind.  Again, just ask Joe*.

*Its not every day that I can get two Posnanski links into one post, so here's a Pozerisk for you!

Comments

[Luis Venitucci]

I think it goes wiout saying that the Mets have NO IDEA on how to handle injuries to their players when they occur. Sad, and you have to wonder where the blame lies.

[Mitch]

I think cortisone is the modern equivalent of rub some dirt on it.