Johan Possibly Heading for Surgery?boa

Another week, another Mets star potentially heading to the disabled list; this time, Johan Santana. MLB.com writer Marty Noble gets the impression from Santana’s teammate that he may require surgery n his left elbow. This is the passage that sticks out the most:

Manuel acknowledged being “terribly concerned,” that Santana had experienced pain in the elbow in recent starts though “not at this level,” the level he experienced in his most recent start, Thursday against the Braves. The manager also indicated Santana had not done normal between-starts throwing for an extended period.

Emphasis is mine. If Santana told the Mets he was experiencing — presumably – worse pain than usual a few starts ago, and they continued to pitch him in what amounts to a lost season, then frankly the Mets are getting their just dues here. That assumes Santana did the responsible thing by speaking up, if he didn’t, then shame on him for being selfish and trying to pitch through a potential injury. Take a look at Santana’s alarming velocity chart:

Missing the rest of this season is largely irrelevant. The Mets aren’t in any type of playoff hunt and it’s more about 2010 with them, which is exactly why this hurts if it’s a procedure that would require a lengthy recovery time. I’d rather not get into speculation, but any time one of the best pitchers is having issues with his pitching elbow, it’s no good.

Who knows what this means for the Mets’ off-season plans. After handing Oliver Perez a pricey free agent contract and seeing him implode, you have to wonder if the Mets would seriously consider handing out another big deal. If not, they could always try one of the injured pitchers on the market like Erik Bedard, Rich Harden, or Ben Sheets, but at least two of them seem incapable of staying healthy for long durations.

Still better than Nelson Figueroa though.