In a New York Minute, Everything Can Change

The baseball blogowebs were all a-twitter last night with word that the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran had received back-alley microfracture surgery on his bothersome knee. Beltran apparently sought out the services of his own person physician, Dr. Richard Steadman, in Colorado, who performed an arthroscopic cleanup on the outfielder’s osteoarthritic right knee. According to Dr. Steadman, “[Beltran] is anticipated to return to baseball activities in 12 weeks.”


Let’s forget for a moment that the quote from the good doctor is far from grammatically correct and focus instead on a few of the rather surprising parts of this story.

First, Beltran used his own personal physician. What’s more he decided on the surgery and had the procedure performed prior to alerting the New York Mets organization. Beltran’s agent, the Devil’s own lawyer, Scott Boras, told the Associated Press that based on the terms of Beltran’s contract there was no need to get the Mets’ consent for the surgery.

Oh, sure. Why not? It’s not like they care that their starting centerfielder won’t be able to start in centerfield. I’m sure there’s no contractual reason to inform your employer that you won’t technically be able to perform the duties for which you are being paid. It’s not like the Mets could be out a large sum of money, right? Beltran was only expected to earn $18.5 million this season. And next.

Then there’s the timing of the surgery must certainly be an issue for the Mets and their fans. This guy suffered through knee pain for most of the past season and he waits until mid-January to have the surgery. The doctor says he won’t start “baseball related activities” for at least 12 weeks, which guarantees he’ll miss the first 2 days of the season. Then, and only then, will he try doing things like running, sliding and hitting a baseball. The guess here is you can count him out until May, at the earliest!

In 2009, the Mets saw $66.7 million – nearly half of their $139.1 million payroll – on the disabled list. That included most of their top talents such as Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and, yes, Carlos Beltran. For the Mets to find out now that they are going into 2010 without one of their star players is like American Idol starting a new season without Paula Abdul’s incoherent ramblings – it hurts, but it makes sense.



Lastly, there’s the little matter of all of this having happened before. Way back in “The Year 2000!” Carlos Beltran was on the Royals’ DL (with a bruised right knee) and decided that he wanted to do his own rehab away from the team. The Royals suspended him, citing a provision in his contract that stipulated the team had the right to decide his medical treatment. Gosh, that sounds familiar...

So, who’s to blame in all this? Should Carlos have informed the Mets’ medical staff about his surgery? Seems to me those guys have about as good a track record as the kids on Grey’s Anatomy. Maybe Beltran just couldn’t find a spare table in the Mets’ training room. Or maybe, just maybe, he took that $18 million the Mets gave him and replaced the cartilage in his right knee with solid gold!

Mets fans can only dream…