Paul Articulates - Mets health necessity

Last night Brett Baty was a last minute scratch due to “lower back tightness”.  We will not really know how he is until he either gets back or stays out.  That is how injury reporting goes – intentionally vague, meant to inform but not advise.  Even in the preseason no one tips their hand.  The training staff also doesn’t want to cause over-reaction when they don’t fully understand the extent of an injury.  However, the lack of information can still cause over-reaction as the media always chooses speculation over silence.

Baty will likely be alright.  He’s 24 years old, and bodies at that age are pretty resilient when a muscle is strained.  If it was in the oblique area or a shoulder or a bicep or a quad or a hamstring it may be more cause for concern.  Now if it were me, you could count on no yard work for a week.

This story isn’t about Brett Baty’s injury, but about the Mets health in general.  For years they seem to be one of the most injured teams in baseball, often reaching mid-season with a shadow of their April roster.  This year so far, things have been much better as only Kodai Senga and Jeff McNeil have spent time nursing injuries.

Steve Cohen knows risk management – that is why he has the money to spend on improving this team.  He also knows the team’s injury history as well or better than we do so you can be certain that he has recruited the best in the business to ensure the physical health of the Mets rosters from rookie ball through the majors.  He has a “Major League Performance Staff” of a dozen people that are dedicated to the health and fitness of the MLB team and that does not even include the eight staffers on the “Performance Technology” team with titles like “Biomechanics Engineer” that are analyzing every player movement to optimize mechanics and minimize injury.

It is still way too early to say this has paid off, as there are still a couple weeks of spring training remaining and then the grind of a 162 game season plus (hopefully) playoffs.  But when news came down yesterday about the Yankees shutting down Garrett Cole, it was a stark reminder that health is so important in the chances of a team meeting its expectations.  Last year’s 87 loss disaster can easily be traced back to the pre- and early season injuries that stressed the pitching staff, the bullpen, and eventually the entire roster.  

The term “abundance of caution” is such an overused phrase that I will not use it in anything I write except to mention it as an overused phrase.  However, the intent is laudable.  Whenever you want to mitigate the risk of major injury, you cannot ignore minor injury.  If a player feels discomfort it usually means something needs to heal so in the pre-season you shut that player down and let their young body regenerate.  In the midst of the season it is a much different dilemma.  Players for years have played through “bumps and bruises” because they want to keep their spot (right, Wally Pipp?) and because they believe in their recuperative power.  But today’s game is different than prior eras.  Physical performance is optimized to the point where every muscle, ligament, and tendon is pushed to the limit.  When something hurts, it may be on the brink of failing.

I applaud David Stearns for doing his best to build depth in the organization.  It seems that there are many players ready to be “next up” if there is an injury issue.  Depth is the only way to forge on during the season if a player needs to rest and heal.  Otherwise the only two options are to roll the dice with a player’s health or to lose; both options have unfortunate outcomes.

There is also the depth brought about by having many talented prospects, but conventional wisdom says not to rush the prospects into the show too quickly because if they fail, their confidence suffers a blow that is difficult to recover from.  There are as many opinions as there are writers on who may be ready now versus ready at mid-season or in the end-of-year call-up time when rosters expand.  It is ultimately up to the Mets’ player development staff to determine who is ready for a shot.  Once again, Stearns and Cohen have done their best to put the right people in these positions to make that call.

This will be an interesting season to watch, as there are so many variables in play: health; performance of the baby Mets; development of the younger prospects; and the leadership of our new manager Carlos Mendoza.  We may not succeed on all fronts, but if it is a healthy season that is the best forward progress to hope for.