Jenrry Mejia left Saturday's game against the San Diego Padres in the fourth inning for what was called "elbow discomfort". Keep in mind that Mejia had said … before his surprising run of stellar pitching started this season, that he was going to get surgery to remove bone spurs at the end of the season. So frankly, I'm surprised it took this long for this to happen.
And I wonder what would have been best here … There's a part of me that says "well hey, if Mejia was shut down early in the season, nobody would have never known that Mejia could have possibly been this good. So pitching through this injury might, in a weird way, be the best thing for his career. It might also be the best thing for the Mets too, as now they know they have another option in a growing list of legitimate pitching prospects that could light up a given night with hope.
But then again, it might be false hope, as Mejia will now have expectations which will probably be unrealistic after surgery, and when Mejia goes through a stretch of struggles next season, the Internet will be destroyed with cries of "Why did the Mets let him pitch last season", "Ray Ramirez is a bum", and needless political posts on Facebook. (Oh wait, that's been destroying the Internet for the last five years.) We could only hope that this is a mere setback and not a significant death blow. The good news is that modern medicine can do wonders. The bad news is that Ray Ramirez is only equipped with walking boots, tongs and leeches.
Mejia's early exit paved the way for David Aardsma to throw entirely too much, as his 54 pitches over two innings were a career high … so we'll be hearing about his bone spurs any day now. The four runs he gave up sunk the Mets in an 8-2 loss that seemed like it took more time to finish than Mrs. Buck's gestation period, and totally overshadowed the debut of Travis d'Arnaud behind the dish. d'Arnaud had a couple of walks, but also had a passed ball which means what we can all label him a big fat bust, right?
The Mejia injury is a bummer. It probably isn't going to mean anything in the long run as the surgery was coming anyway. But it's a constant reminder that for every step forward, there's one or two or 27 steps back. After the game I was catching up on my programming and this came up on my DVR … how appropriate:
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