Former New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana is hoping to return to the major leagues in 2015 after missing all of the last two seasons due to injuries.
But Santana’s comeback has not been going smoothly. Santana, 35, retired six straight batters in his first appearance with the Navegantes del Magallanes on January 13th. However, Santana’s manager Carlos Garcia told reporters that the pitcher’s left shoulder has been slow to recover and he won’t pitch again in the Venezuelan Winter League.
FOX Sports reporter Jon Morosi tweeted that Santana may still throw for MLB scouts, but those plans are unclear.
I’d love to see Santana’s comeback be successful – it’s always better to be able to leave on your own terms than to have injuries force you out the door. But at this stage, we might have to get ready to accept the idea that we watched Santana’s final MLB appearance on August 17, 2012.
Carson suspended for 50 games
Former New York Mets pitcher Robert Carson, now a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, has been suspended for 50 games following his second positive test for a drug of abuse in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, MiLB.com reports.
Carson seemed like he was rushed to the major leagues before he was really ready to compete at that level, but he was always friendly towards fans who wanted an autograph when I saw him in the with the Mets and in the minor leagues. I hope that he’s able to deal with his problems during this suspension.
Former Mets pitching coach dies of leukemia
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Bill Monbouquette, the pitching coach for the 1982 and 1983 New York Mets, passed away after a long battle with leukemia on Sunday. He was 78.
Former Mariners draft pick talks about the high cost of playing minor league baseball
With all the talk of mega-million free agent contracts, seven-figure arbitration awards and six- and seven-figure signing bonuses for recently drafted amateur players, it’s easy to forget that most people who play baseball professionally don’t make much money at all.
Former Seattle Mariners prospect Jim Campanis, a third round pick in 1988 who never reached the major leagues, shared his tale with Tom Owens of Baseball by the Letters.
Ultimately, my decision to stop playing baseball at nearly 28 years old was purely financial. I knew I could still play but I could not afford $1,000 a month job anymore. Plus, we were thousands of dollars in debt from living off the credit cards. I basically paid to play pro baseball the last couple of years.
Baseball is a beautiful game, but the business of it has a very ugly side.
PaulHadsall.com 
Do I think Santana will be successful? No. He was losing a bunch of velocity before he got hurt and he’s been gone a couple years. So he retired six a row in a winter league game? That’s not MLB and even his winter league manager said his shoulder has been slow to respond and has essentially shut him down. So, unless he can make hitters look stupid with slightly more than Randy Jones-type stuff, he’ll never survive in MLB.
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At this stage, it almost seems like Santana would be accomplishing something if he is able to take the ball every 5th day for a professional team at any level.
Not quite the end any of us wanted to see, so I hope we’re wrong.
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Yes, Paul, you’d like to see a quality pitcher like Santana retire on his own terms.
Not sure how well-versed you are in baseball history but, between the wars, there was something known as the “Sunday pitcher.” HOF’er Ted Lyons made a pretty decent career doing that. You hitch him up to the wagon once a week and (hopefully) he goes the distance, giving the pen a day off. If you can get seven out of Santana every Sunday, it might be worth an investment.
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I wonder if teams would even be interested in a pitcher like that in 2015, given the way managers are conditioned to utilize bullpen match ups.
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Probably not, Paul. Most of these managers think only one way, which is the match-ups. As practical an idea as it could be, as it would slow the bullpen parade for one day a week, the thought of resurrecting the Sunday pitcher is just so foreign as to be considered ridiculous. And in baseball, in this day and age, it seems that most teams live and die by the radar gun and strikeout counts. Santana loses on both.
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