In a Thursday night conference call, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson informed reporters that star pitcher Johan Santana would likely miss the entire 2013 season due to a recently discovered tear in his pitching shoulder.
“We don’t know when it happened or how it happened,” said Alderson about the tear, “but we do know that at some point the symptoms worsened.”
Santana was already supposed to start the season on the disabled list because of soreness in his pitching shoulder, but this news still comes as somewhat of a surprise. The tear is similar to the one that caused Santana to miss the entire 2011 season, and Alderson told reporters that there is a “strong possibility” that Santana could undergo surgery again.
With Santana’s career with the Mets all but over, it will be interesting to see how fans reflect on his stay in New York. On one hand, Santana failed to lead the Mets to the postseason and caused the team to part with Carlos Gomez and Phil Humber, who are both productive major league players. However, fans are unlikely to forget Santana pitching the first no-hitter in Mets history, not to mention his performance during the 2008 pennant chase that kept the Mets in the playoff picture until the bitter end.
I know for me, the no-hitter trumps everything else when it comes to Santana and the Mets. Hopefully, he recovers from this admittedly major setback as quickly as possible.
