Why are people making such a big deal over Carlos Delgado saying he can’t guarantee he will be back this season?
Delgado, who turns 37 in June, has just had major hip surgery. Most people realize that it will take him weeks to recover, and even when he is ready to play, there is no guarantee that he will be able to perform at his best.
Everyone except Met management, that is.
“Tis just a scratch!” bellows the Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when King Arthur cuts off his arm. Eventually, King Arthur cuts off all of the Black Knight’s limbs, but the Black Knight still refuses to concede the fight.
With the Mets’ constant insistence on downplaying the severity of injuries, it would not surprise me if they used “Holy Grail” as a motivational film.
And someone in PR is going to pay for allowing Delgado to appear in public last night on crutches. How will they pilfer Nick Johnson from Washington if the Nationals have any suspicion that he might not be back when the Mets hope he is back?
The worst thing about the Mets’ denial when it comes to injuries and injury risk is that it permits Omar Minaya to keep relying on aging veterans, both at the big league level and at Triple A. Moises Alou did great when he could play, but he was at the end of his career and could not stay healthy. Now the Mets are counting on a 40-year-old playing the outfield fulltime for the first time since 2005. How is that likely to work out in the long run?
But the only thing worse about being in denial on injuries would be to panic and overreact to to them. Better to at least give the first base platoon of Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis a chance than to give up the likes of Bobby Parnell for an injury-prone Nick Johnson.
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