Audio: Minaya Addresses Wagner, Santana, Putz, Perez

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Here’s the conference call with reporters to address the surgery that Johan Santana will have. Omar Minaya also gets into the Billy Wagner trade to the Red Sox, J.J. Putz‘ next rehab appearance being delayed, and Oliver Perez coming back to New York to have his knee examined.

As usual, Minaya stumbles and bumbles his way through the call. It’s bizarre that he doesn’t even remember that Santana had elbow problems during spring training that almost caused him to miss opening day. It’s also odd that Minaya hasn’t spoken to Santana yet about the injury and impending surgery.

Oliver Perez To Have Knee Examined

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On the heels of the news that Johan Santana is finished for the season, WFAN is now reporting that Oliver Perez is leaving the team to return to New York to have his right knee examined. This comes after Perez was rocked for 6 runs on Sunday against the Phillies in .2 innings.

Perez missed most of May and June on the disabled list because of his knee. But I always suspected it was more of a phantom injury because he was pitching so poorly. He seemed to tweak the knee while covering first base on a play on August 18 against the Braves. But he did his side work and made the unsuccessful start against the Phils on Sunday.

Perez has pitched decently, but not great, since returning from the DL on July 8. He hasn’t pitched more than 6.1 innings in a game since then. We don’t know what this will mean for the rest of the season.

Johan Santana Surgery Will End Season

Johan SantanaWFAN is reporting that Johan Santana will have arthroscopic elbow surgery to remove bone chips in his arm. Santana’s season is over, much like the Mets.

Santana finishes the season at 13-9 with a 3.13 ERA and 1.212 WHIP for a team that is currently 57-68. Reports from the team are that Santana hasn’t been throwing between starts since the All-Star break. The last thing Mets fans had to cheer about is over. Santana went 8-3 at home and 5-6 on the road. He pitched 3 games against their biggest rival, the Phillies, and went 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA.

Billy Wagner Traded To Red Sox

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After a lot of back and forth over the last few days about what conditions were required for Billy Wagner to waive his full no-trade clause, the Mets and Red Sox finally finished the deal right before the deadline today. The Mets will receive two minor league players in return for Wagner.

Wagner did fly with the team to Miami last night, so he’ll be turning around and heading to Boston where the Red Sox are playing the White Sox.

The reports were that Wagner wanted the Red Sox to guarantee that they wouldn’t pick up his $8 million option for next season and wouldn’t offer him salary arbitration either.

We don’t know all the details of the trade yet. More updates soon.