Mets Ace Johan Santana Done For Rest Of 2009 Season

Sports Betting News - August 26th, 2009 - Written by Scott

At the start of the season, the New York Mets had high hopes of reaching the World Season.  These hopes have fallen apart as they announced on Tuesday that pitcher Johan Santana will undergo season ending arthroscopic surgery for bone chips in his left elbow.  The Mets have been plagued by injuries all season and this is another huge blow to the fourth place team. The organization was fearing a major setback to Santana, but he will have surgery instead.

Mets General Manager Omar Minaya reported that Santana had been evaluated around the All-Star break because of his declining stats.  There were no signs of any major issues with his elbow at the time.  In recent weeks, the problem with Santana's elbow began to worsen.  Santana did in fact have the same surgery following the 2003 season and responded the following year with 20 wins and the first of his two Cy Young awards while pitching for the Minnesota Twins.

Through his first ten starts of the season, Santana had an impressive 7-2 record with an ERA of 1.77.  In addition, he was averaging almost 12 strikeouts per nine innings.  Since then, the ace pitcher saw his stats decline.  In his last fifteen starts, his win/loss record took a major decline.  He was 6-7 with an ERA of 4.02 and only averaging close to 6 strikeouts per nine innings.  Santana did report that if the Mets had been in a pennant race, he would have attempted to finish out the season.  The Mets have fallen below the .500 mark and they felt that it would benefit them more to have him around for the long term rather than cause any further damage.  Santana, who has four seasons left on his $137.5 million six year deal, also had arthroscopic surgery last October  to repair torn cartilage in his left knee.  In his first season with the Mets, Santana went 16-7 and led the majors with a 2.53 ERA.

As the development of Santana's news was coming around, the Mets on the same day traded Billy Wagner to the Boston Red Sox for two players to be named.  The Mets have recalled left handed pitcher Pat Misch and first baseman Nick Evans from Triple-A Buffalo.  The Mets organization also made another announcement on Tuesday that reliever J.J. Putz will miss the rest of the season to rest his as his comeback from elbow surgery is progressing too slow.  He will not require any further surgery but the Mets want insure that no further damage will occur.  An MRI revealed "some new fraying and a slight tear" in his right forearm the organization reported.

To discuss this and other Sports Betting stories like it, be sure to check out our new forum at:
https://www.usaplayers.com/forums/