Tag: Johan Santana

Video: Mets Johan Santana Back on the Mound

Johan Santana got back to the mound today and threw 25 pitches in Port St. Lucie. As you know, he’s rehabbing from a serious left shoulder surgery and missed all of 2011. He looks like he’s in good shape, as you’d expect from him, and it sounds like he’s encouraged about the bullpen session today with Josh Thole.

Personally, I’m hoping that he can pitch a solid half season this year. Anything more than that will be gravy.

Check out the video below when he spoke reporters after the bullpen session.

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Mets Johan Santana’s Shoulder Recovering in PSL

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Johan Santa...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

There have been quite a few reports about Johan Santana recovering in Port St. Lucie this month. The Mets are hoping to get 25 starts out of him this season while he’s recovering from surgery on his left shoulder capsule. It’s the same surgery that Mark Prior and Chien-Ming Wang had that kept them out for years and were never the same when they came back.

Dan Warthen has been in PSL and talked to Dan Martin of the Post about it:

I’ve been looking at video from when he’s been down here recently and comparing it to video from 2008, before he got hurt. It’s no different. Not even one percent. That’s extremely important.

Personally, I don’t think Santana is going to be able to make a significant impact on the 2012 Mets. He may be able to come back in June and work toward pitching every five days. But I’m concerned that he’ll never be the pitcher that the Mets expected to live up to his $25 million salary this season.

The rest of the team isn’t even close to strong enough to support the team without Santana running at full strength.

Citi Field Debt Downgraded to Negative

English: New York Mets inaugural season patch ...
Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded the nearly $700 million in debt against Citi Field to negative. That means that they’re reducing the debt to below investment grade. Forbes details the financial assault that the Mets are facing. The financial prospects for the Mets and Wilpon appear to be getting more dire by the day.

Without Jose Reyes on the roster the team is poised for even lower attendance than the 2011 season. The Mets have also floated the possibility that  Johan Santana may not be healthy and ready for opening day after not throwing a pitch in 2011. Other than David Wright, who is in the final year of his contract (plus a team option for 2013), there isn’t much of a reason to go out the park in 2012.

It’s clear that the rest of the teams in the division have made roster improvements while the Mets have essentially failed to enter the free agent market. For the second offseason in a row, Sandy Alderson was handcuffed by the team’s financial situation. His only contribution to re-making the roster has been to shuffle some players in and out of the bullpen and the bench. The Mets GM job has to be one of the worst in baseball right now.

Mets Agree to Contract with Frank Francisco

Frank Francisco
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

The Mets got their closer for 2012 and 2012 in free agent Frank Francisco. He agreed to a 2 year/$12 million deal to work the ninth inning for the Mets. He’s one of the last free agent closers to agree to a contract after Jonathan Papelbon got the market going by signing with Phillies early in the game. Since then the closers have been going quickly which left the Mets with the bargain basement choices left without a chair.

Francisco had 17 saves with Toronto last year with a 3.55 ERA. He’s 32 years old and has a career 3.72 ERA.

Bobby Parnell didn’t appear to be up to the closing job in 2011 so the Mets had to go outside the organization. But it didn’t make sense to go for the high end closers like Papelbon or Heath Bell because the Mets don’t look like they’ll be winning a lot of games in 2012. There’s nothing to save if you’re losing.

Francisco is a solid, low-end closer that doesn’t break the bank. He’ll hold down the fort for two seasons while the Mets ride out the contracts of Jason Bay and Johan Santana.

Video: Mets Weekly Report – Johan Santana, David Einhorn

NEW YORK - MAY 06: Johan Santana #57 of the ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In this week’s Mets Weekly Report video, Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I talk about some of the latest news from the Mets this week. Primarily, Johan Santana pitched 2 inning for the St. Lucie Mets and he may even make a start in the Majors this season. We talk about whether we want to see Santana pitching with the Mets this season or if the Mets should hold him back with an eye toward 2012.

We also talk about the deal that fell through last week for David Einhorn to buy a minority stake in the Mets. It seemed like a done deal in June when the Mets introduced Einhorn to the media as the next part-owner of the team. But delays in consummating the deal ensued and it ended up falling apart last week. We talk about why the deal fell apart and what that means to the Mets financially going forward.

Johan Santana Rehab Start for St. Lucie Mets

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - JULY 24: Johan Santana #5...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mets starting pitcher Johan Santana made his second rehab start for the St. Lucie Mets today. He pitched two innings, facing 9 batters, and gave up 1 run on 3 hits. He had 2 strikeouts and no walks in the game. He was scheduled to pitch 2 innings or 40 pitches.

Time will tell if it was a successful rehab start. If you remember, he made a start for St. Lucie on July 28 and hasn’t pitched again in more than a month now. Coming back from shoulder surgery is tricky and the Mets have to be careful. Not only because he’s coming back from an injury, but also because he’s the most costly resource in the entire Mets system making $22.5 million without even throwing a pitch.

His salary escalates to $24 million in 2012 and $25.5 million in 2013 with an option for 2014 at $25 million. If the Mets can’t get Santana healthy enough to pitch in 2012, they’ll be in big trouble combined with a decreasing payroll. The simple fact is that they just can’t have a guy on the disabled list taking up nearly 25% of the team’s payroll. It’s impossible to win that way.

Johan Santana Visits Mets in Miami

During last night’s game against the Marlins, Johan Santana visited with the Mets. He’s been rehabbing from shoulder surgery in Port St. Lucie and even threw a three inning simulated game this week. Santana will be throwing a bullpen session for the Mets front office tomorrow at Sun Life Stadium to gauge his readiness for pitching rehab minor league games.

Unfortunately, Santana isn’t going to make it back in time to have a positive impact on the season. The rumors are swirling about Carlos Beltran trade partners. And Fox Sports reported that the Mets want to trade Beltran early next week so they can work on trading away some other players like Chris Capuano, Willie Harris, Scott Hairston, and Tim Byrdak.

Even without having an impact on 2011, it sure would be nice to see Santana back and pitching well for the Mets in August and September. It would certainly instill some confidence going into the offseason that 2012 won’t be another wasted season.

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