Just Mets

Sandy Alderson clearly sounded upset and angry during today’s call with reporters about Zack Wheeler’s torn elbow ligament. In fact, I can’t ever remember Sandy sounding like that in public.

I can’t blame him. It’s a terrible day for the Mets, and yet another terrible day for baseball. The club is now scrambling for a replacement, and there are some challenging questions going forward about Wheeler and the rest of the league regarding what has become a very serious problem in the game, from the amateur ranks right up to the majors.

It’s not a day I wish I was the general manager of the Mets, to say the least.

“Its a blow. But at the same time, we knew there would be a lot of uncertainty surrounding Zack and his elbow over the course of the season,” Alderson said. “We’re obviously not happy he won’t be with us, but if there’s a silver lining, there’s certainty and a solution for this. He won’t have to manage the pain he’s had over the course of the last year.”

The Mets General Manager was asked numerous questions about Wheeler’s case history regarding his injured elbow, but insisted on each occasion previous scans showed no damage to Wheeler’s ulnar collateral ligament.

“The two previous MRI’s showed no ligament involvement,” Alderson said.

Alderson qualified his response by explaining it’s not always clear a ligament problem is forthcoming, even if MRI’s show no damage to the structure.

Based on Wheeler’s case history over the last year, Alderson said the team wasn’t surprised when he complained of elbow pain recently. However, he reiterated they didn’t think his UCL was involved in the injury based on prior scans.

“When he complained of elbow pain, it wasn’t a surprise to us. But when MRI’s were done in the off-season, the ligament wasn’t involved, Alderson explained on Monday. “What prompted this MRI was Zack had complained about the elbow in the past, but the area of pain increased in size. That’s when the MRI was ordered on Saturday and read by Altchek this morning.”

Alderson said Wheeler underwent an MRI in September, a platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection in November, and another MRI in January after reporting more discomfort to the team.

Even so, the club didn’t sense a need to treat Wheeler any differently despite the on-going discomfort and treatment.

“There wasn’t any reason for him to be treated more cautiously,” Alderson said.

To me, the timelines aren’t particularly relevant anymore. Whether it was determined Wheeler needed the procedure today or three months ago, his 2015 season would be lost no matter what.

The more important issue at hand is prevention.

When big league stars, highly touted prospects and hopefuls, or anyone on the diamond is constantly being affected by the same problem, there has to be a place to start to help prevent or reduce the number of incidents from occurring. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet and the problem only seems to be growing. In a day and age when the game is trying to reach it’s younger fan population effectively, and losing so many players – especially those they may be able to identify with specifically – makes it hard to accomplish that goal.

There are some theories, such as kids under the age of 15 throwing too many off-speed and breaking balls while their bodies are still growing, or the fact they’re throwing too many pitches period.

But the foundation of the problem remains a mystery, as Sandy Alderson explained to reporters earlier today.