“Internally, the Mets believe they’ll be “lucky” if Santana pitches this year.”
That is a stand-alone paragraph in a Sunday morning report by Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record. According to their sources, Santana has made very little progress in his ongoing recovery from September shoulder surgery and the Mets are ready to announce that he has been shut down indefinitely. The left-hander was already expected to be out until late June or early July, and now it’s possible that he could be sidelined for the duration of the 2011 season.
The Mets have already refuted the report, with pitching coach Dan Warthen telling ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin that progress “has been great” and that “everything is going right on target, maybe a little ahead.”
But Popper and Klapisch aren’t the only reporters saying that Santana is in trouble.
ESPN’s Buster Olney heard from a source that the Mets “aren’t expecting much” from their ace in 2011. David Waldstein of the New York Times talked to a shoulder expert who indicated the same thing.
The truth may lie somewhere in between the Bergen Record‘s report and Warthen’s claims. What we do know is that Santana has only begun playing light catch and is far from ready to step atop a mound.