Yesterday Mets ace Johan Santana faced live hitters in batting practice for the first time this spring. He pitched two simulated innings and looked pretty good. Several of the hitters remarked that his stuff looked excellent. The plan from here is for Santana to start on Tuesday against Carlos Beltran’s Cardinals and continue to monitor how he’s doing to see how he feels.
If he continues to progress and feel good on the day after he pitches, it would be great to see him start building strength and stamina in his arm with an eye towards pitching early in the regular season.
I continue to believe that the Mets season is highly dependent on how quickly Santana can return from shoulder surgery. I don’t think they’re a playoff team even with Santana. But the season could become a complete disaster without him including the possibility of 100 losses which we haven’t seen here since ’93.
The Mets Report 