There’s no truth to the rumor that the Mets are calling around to Port St. Lucie doctors to get the names of 20-to-30-year-old males that have passed a physical recently. And there’s certainly no truth to the rumor that inviting those healthy men to Mets camp might be the only way the Mets can field a lineup.
No, no truth at all. But it isn’t as absurd as it should be.
The injury bug continued to plague the Amazin’s on Saturday as Carlos Delgado was sent to New York for an MRI on his hip and Marlon Anderson and Ryan Church tried to recreate the Mike Cameron/Carlos Beltran collision of a few years ago. The diagnosis is Delgado is out for several days with a hip impingement, which I believe translates in English to “red freakin’ flag,” Anderson is day-to-day with a bruised sternum and Church is out indefinitely with a Grade 2 concussion. Even as someone who’s been ringing the “beware of injuries” bell for the last several weeks, this is a bit excessive. It’s only compounded by the fact that Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo, Damion Easley, Jose Valentin, Orlando Hernandez and Endy Chavez are all not cleared to play. Yes, it’s better for injuries to happen early, but that can’t apply to the entire team… or in this case a third of it.
The big problem is the Delgado injury. Everyone assumes that injuries kept him off his game all season in 2007 and at his age there’s no guarantee he’s suddenly going to shake them. For him to be sent away from camp this early for tests tells you the Mets are worried too. He’s a big part of their offense and that batting order gets a lot shorter if you remove a healthy Delgado and insert a lighter-hitting catcher.
As far as what the Mets can do, the first name that comes to my mind is Nick Johnson. The former Yankee was a non-factor in Washington last season as he rehabbed an injury and in his absence Dmitri Young resurrected his career. Now the Nationals have both, probably don’t need both, and certainly don’t seem to have a problem dealing with Omar Minaya (see Milledge, Lastings). That might be a good fit, but for the Mets to swing that kind of deal, they’re going to need to be sure that Delgado isn’t going to contribute much this season. They might have to wait a while to make that determination, but they can’t wait too long because the Nats may want to clear out one first baseman before Opening Day. The Mets are going to make their best guess about what the future holds.
So forgive Minaya if you see wandering along the Asbury Park boardwalk looking for Madame Marie.
