How Deep Is Your Love? And How Deep Is The Rotation?

Spring training is a time for renewal. Eternal optimism. Unless of course you are a Mets pitcher who has a shoulder discomfort before the calendar hits March.

Jon Niese is leaving the warm confines of Port St. Lonesome to head back to the Polar Vortex of New York City to get an MRI on his throwing shoulder. When you are looking at all the wins that the Mets could pick up from last season to this new one, a healthy Jon Niese might have helped. Niese missed two months last season, and his spot was taken by Zack Wheeler. So having the two of them in the rotation at the same time will help if Niese gets to pitch.

But that's no longer a guarantee. A precautionary MRI by itself isn't a big deal. A precautionary MRI on a shoulder that has been going through strength training since last August might be a slightly bigger deal. A precautionary MRI on a shoulder that has been going through strength training since last August while attached to somebody who is wearing the uniform of the New York Mets is frightening. Partly because … well, he's a Met. When has this ever turned into "oh, he just needs some rest"?

Also, because if he is hurt for a period of time people will think it will mean that we'll see more of Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard. But you know deep down in your heart that it really means a locked up starting spot for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Sure, John Lannan would make more sense because he's a lefty. Fine. But Daisuke is making his way on to the rotation one way or another. And if you want more specifics for that "another", try this:

"Bartolo Colon is experiencing tightness in a calf … "  

No chance that's a calf he's keeping in a freezer so he can thaw it out for breakfast?

Bartolo Colon, who the Mets signed to a two-year, $20 million deal in December, missed the workouts with "tightness," in his calves. Collins said he let the rotund 40-year-old right-hander work inside to "keep him off his feet."  

Great. Maybe they can get Colon carried into the game on a shrine like an Egyptian god, or Steve Nebraska when he was playing for the Campesinos in "The Scout" to keep him off his feet. Though I'm not sure that Colon isn't the last guy you want to be off his feet during spring training.

We're off to a rockin' start, obviously.