Last off-season Carlos Beltran had surgery on his ailing knee against Mets' managements' wishes. Pissed off, they rushed him back before he was fully recovered to watch him stumble around in the outfield like a 41 year old Willie Mays. Trust me, older Mets fans get that reference. In the off season, the team and Beltran admitted he was rushed back and probably should have taken more time off to fully heal. Well the incompetent Omar Minaya/Jerry Manuel team was mercifully removed from duty after a second straight 4th place finish. In swept a new era of Mets baseball spearheaded by competence and making the best decisions for the long haul.
Sandy Alderson came riding in on his white horse to clean up the organizational dysfunction that has plagued the team for two decades. He will not be afraid to cut ties to overpaid, under performing players just because they have pulses and a track record of success as recently as six years ago! He is going to put the best 25 men on the roster so that night in and night out the team has its best chance to compete! He is going to force Carlos Beltran to start the season in right field even though he has played one game so far at DH and missed two weeks with knee tendinitis! Wait, what? I apologize, I must have blacked out for a minute there, because that sounds like something the incompetent Minaya administration would do in a desperate attempt to save his job. Beltran has played 3 games in his career in right field, the last a mere 11 years ago. Additionally it has been his left knee that has troubled him this spring even though it was the right knee that was surgically repaired.
Now I will have to go back and peruse my resume, but I am pretty sure I have never once been the general manager of a baseball team. With that expertise in mind it feels an awful lot like 2009 and 2010 when I hear a Mets GM talk about rushing a player back onto the field before he is fully healed. It astonishes me that the team is so willing to risk a much longer stint of inactivity by forcing an obviously hampered player to play through an injury. This is not pain or soreness, have you seen his spring training stats? One spring training game as a DH over two weeks ago. He had three at bats and has not been able to play the game since. Hey here is a novel idea: let him play a FULL 9 innings in right field in a minor league game, have him wake up the next day and do it AGAIN! Once he proves an ability to perform such monumental feats THEN give him a roster spot with the big club. The last thing the Mets need to do in 2011 is play game after game with only 24 or 23 guys available to play.
