Mack Ade - Injury Outlook

The Mets are getting down to the short hairs and have to start putting down on paper just who is and who isn’t going north come the beginning of next month.

The touch part here is no one is either knocking the snot off the ball, or bruning it past the opponent’s hitters. This has been a camp that has produced more injures than happy stories and the reality of it is that decisions have to be made on replacement players.

In my book, the following players will not/could not  be ready for opening day. I hope I’m wrong, but the list is:

2B Daniel Murphy – The rehab schedule on Murphy is painfully slow. I just can’t see him being game ready by opening day. Normally, Justin Turner would be the fill-in candidate here, but he has his own problems. Josh Satin could come in handy here. He can play 2B, 3B, and 1B and has a trusty AAA bat.

3B David Wright – the Mets will take their time with the Captain. The Turner sprained ankle must be killing TC. Looking past JT, Zach Lutz has hit .344 as a Mets third baseman this spring in camp. Brandon Hicks is, I’m sure, a candidate also, though his .133 BBA is nothing to write home about this spring.

IF Justin Turner – Hopefully, by the time this prints out on the blog, JT is back on the field, but, until then, he’s another casualty of camp. Another option here will be to temporarily move Ruben Tejada to 2B and use Omar Quintanilla at SS.

CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis – Forget Captain Kirk for opening day. He will play, at least, a month in the minors, possibly rehabbing at first for St. Lucie. It will be interesting to watch if he falls behind the pecking order in centerfield to Matt den Dekker. I’ve seen a lot of players like this over the years I’ve followed baseball and there is a good chance we have seen the best of this man.

SP Jenrry Mejia – a walking example of “once an arm problem, always an arm problem”.  Like Nieuwenhuis, there is a chance that Mejia’s best Mets days are behind him, but he will eventually get another chance this year in Las Vegas to prove me wrong. The Mets will fill in the Las Vegas rotation with guys like Mark Cohoon or Dylan Owen if Mejia isn’t ready.

SP Johan Santana – I spent all of ast year saying this guy would never be back and then he not only comes back, but throws a no-hitter. This is just me, but I think this guy just loves getting in the head of the Mets. Watch. He’ll work his way back on the mound, get it up to 60 pitches, and, walla, the Mets will stick him on the back end of the rotation where he doesn’t have to pitch the first go-around.

CL Frank Francisco – I think you will be pleasantly surprised here and there is a good chance than FF may be ready come mid-April. If he is, I expect the Mets to slot him in as the 8^th inning guy and leave Bobby Parnell as the closer… for now.