Image by Keith Allison via Flickr
It didn’t take long for Carlos Beltran to recover from his minor knee surgery enough to issue a response to the Mets. The team sure didn’t like his actions in having surgery, supposedly without their consent. But Beltran claims that the team knew all along what his plans were.
From The Star-Ledger:
I am totally surprised by the reaction to my recent knee surgery. I have done nothing but follow the directions of my doctors. Any accusations that I ignored or defied the team’s wishes are simply false.
On Tuesday, Dr. Steadman consulted with the Mets’ doctor — Dr. Altchek — about my knee. Dr. Altchek agreed with Dr. Steadman’s diagnosis that I needed surgery, and said he would relay his approval to Mets management.
I also spoke to Omar Minaya about the surgery on Tuesday. He did not ask me to wait, or to get another doctor’s opinion. He just wished me well. No one from the team raised any issue until Wednesday, after I was already in surgery. I do not know what else I could have done.
The most important thing here is that the surgery was a total success and I expect to be back on the field playing the game I love sooner rather than later.
It doesn’t look like this controversy will be going away anytime soon from Beltran’s statement. A big problem here is that the Mets need to keep him happy and productive, at least for the next two seasons, if they have any chance of being successful. This is just what this struggling team didn’t need right now.
The Mets Report 