RHP JJ Putz, who recently told WFAN’s Boomer and Carton in the morning that he is not hurt, is hurt. Ben Shpigel with The New York Times reports on GM Omar Minaya’s update to the media on JJ’s status:
Minaya said that Putz had a magnetic resonance imaging scan on his right elbow Wednesday and that it revealed inflammation and a bone spur, which Minaya said had been there for a few years. Putz received a cortisone injection and will not be available to pitch for the next two days.
According to Anthony DiComo with MLB.com, JJ will very likely pitch through it.
Onto the much more serious issue…
Carlos Delgado is beginning a therapy regiment that, according to Shpigel, could not be quite explained by Minaya. After the weekend, the team says that they’ll evaluate Carlos again and decide whether to put him on the DL.
But wait, it gets worse…
According to DiComo:
…the Mets may have a more serious issue on their hands. Neither Delgado nor manager Jerry Manuel dismissed the possibility of a midsummer operation, which would force him to miss a major chunk of the season.
Carlos is obviously a big part of the Mets’ lineup, and losing him would necessitate the team getting pretty creative. Sure, the Mets are hot right now, but remember that Carlos was hitting .423 with 3 doubles and a home run during the team’s recent 7 game winning streak. Could we see Daniel Murphy see some time at first, platooning with Fernando Tatis, perhaps? Gary Sheffield’s power bat is all of a sudden very important to the lineup, so expect to see a lot more of him. It’ll be interesting to see how the Mets manueveur should Carlos have to miss a significant portion of the season…
Pete Lappin (3)
