Ratz!

I guess Jon Niese can lose his real estate agent’s phone number for now, because Steven Matz will be gone from the Mets rotation for at least three weeks with a torn lat muscle. Matz had felt discomfort in his armpit after his first start but was fine after throwing a bullpen session, then was stellar in his second start.

If another team … another organization handled this in the same way, it probably isn’t an issue. But this is the New York Mets, where everything is an issue. Partly because our frazzled fan base makes everything an issue, granted. But this is the same team that constantly makes this an issue by putting out to the media that they don’t think an injury is serious, only to have it be serious days, if not moments later. Consider:

I’ll just leave this here. pic.twitter.com/EGJv58Jnmy

— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) July 8, 2015

Been told the lat injury with Steven Matz is “not serious,” but will miss Sunday’s start. #mets

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) July 10, 2015

Mets say Matz has partial tear of lat muscle on left side. PRP injection, will now throw for 3 weeks and then re-examined. — Matt Ehalt (@MattEhalt) July 10, 2015

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More disturbing: A team that preaches Prevention and Recovery can’t handle one of their golden arms this way. Maybe another team can but this team can’t. Matz did what he was supposed to do, and spoke up with an injury. What did the supposedly “overly cautious” Mets do? Had him throw a bullpen session. Again, on its own … not a big deal. But considering this team’s recent history, it’s another blunder in the long line of blunders. Once again: Context is important.

And I would hate to think that the Mets would play Matz’s injury this way because they would have wanted to draw more fans to the park to see the local kid pitch. Honestly, I don’t think that’s the case. But after the Pedro Martinez toe incident and the admission that Matt Harvey’s turn in the rotation was moved to try to draw more fans to the park after Opening Day, I can’t know that for sure either. This is a problem.

But what do I know. I’m outraged out. This team could care less about transparency because it doesn’t sell tickets. Not realizing that communication with the media is a conduit to communication with the fans. And the fans, once again, get jerked around while the team loses another bright light because of injury. It’s nothing new.