The laughably ignored “Prevention and Recovery” motto of 2010 is just a distant memory, but how much has the way the Mets handle injuries really changed under Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins‘ regime?
The Mets’ biggest free agent signing of the off-season was new closer Frank Francisco, who agreed to a two-year, $12 million contract. He’s had a terrible spring, and over the past couple of days we found out that he has been bothered by a sore knee. Francisco finally went for an MRI on Monday.
Collins spoke to reporters, and had this to say about Francisco’s injury:
“It’s been bothering him all spring,” Collins said. “We thought it was getting better. He wanted to pitch through it. There were some days it didn’t bother him very much. The other day, when he threw the two innings, it stiffened up on him. The next day it was irritating him a little bit, so we had him checked and we’ll see where we are.”
I’m not a doctor or an athletic trainer, but don’t you think it would have made sense to get a sore knee checked out a bit sooner?
This isn’t up there with Ryan Church being allowed to take cross-country flights and pinch-hit in games days after suffering a concussion in 2008, or even sending Jose Reyes out to bat right-handed after he suffered an oblique injury that bothered him more when he swung from the left side of the plate in 2010… but Collins has already shown limited tolerance for injuries this spring.
On March 13th, New York Post reporter Dan Martin wrote:
Asked why [Ruben Tejada] was scratched shortly before [March 13th]’s game [with a groin injury], a visibly irritated Collins said, “Shocker. It’s not serious. It doesn’t have to be here. You need an aspirin, you’re off for the day.”
“I’m just getting tired of going in the training room, where I’ve got to sweat to see who can walk out of there,” Collins added.
If I were a player on Collins’ team, I’d be concerned that a trip to the trainer’s room would land me in the manager’s dog house… hopefully I wouldn’t put it off to the point where I did more damage.
I’d like to think that the Mets are being more cautious with their players now then they were when Omar Minaya, Willie Randolph and Jerry Manuel were running the show, but it sure doesn’t seem like the tune has changed very much, does it?
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