Carlos Beltran Has Knee Surgery, Out Three Months

Man, oh, man, the New York Mets just can’t catch a break. It seems like every step forward, they take two steps back.

Less than a month after landing one of the best hitters on the open market in Jason Bay, Bay’s outfield sidekick goes down. According to ESPN.com, Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran had arthroscopic surgery to clean out the arthritic area of his knee.

Here is the press release issued by the Mets:

Carlos Beltran had worsening of osteoarthritis of the right knee during the offseason.  He had not been experiencing pain following the conclusion of the season and into his early offseason conditioning. The symptoms returned to the point where pre-spring training conditioning became too painful.  He elected to undergo arthroscopic clean out of the arthritic area of his knee by Beltran's personal physician Dr. Richard Steadman today in Colorado.  He is anticipated to return to baseball activities in 12 weeks.

While this nicely worded statement makes it seem like the Mets and Beltran were on the same page with this surgery, they were not. As a matter of fact, it is being reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post , that Beltran had the surgery on his own and without the Mets’ blessing.

Sherman is also reporting that ‘‘the Commissioners Office and the Players Association have been alerted the Mets are claiming this was done without clearance and that the Mets are threatening to take some form of action. There is a potential issue out there.’’

SNY’s (Mets cable network) Kevin Burkhart is calling this a “flat-out disaster.”

This story is just in its infancy and looks like it could get ugly real quickly. This is why under Omar Minaya’s regime, the Mets have become the most dysfunctional organization in baseball.

You can say this has nothing to do with Minaya, but what Beltran did happened under his watch and no matter what the organization or company is, it all starts at the top.

What other team does this happen to in baseball besides the Mets?

And forget about the stuff behinds the scenes, this really puts the Mets in a bad spot on the field. Pitchers and catchers report in little over a month.

What do the Mets do?

Do the Mets put Angel Pagan in center until Beltran is ready—and who knows when that will be—or do they go out and find a replacement such as Rick Ankiel?

The Mets have so many other needs as it is. The Mets are in a real bad spot here.

An injury like this could derail the Mets’ season before the season starts. Like I said, this story is just in its infancy and I will update this story as it progresses.

It looks like 2010 is starting right where 2009 left off for the Mets.

Unreal.

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