MLB News and Rumors: Carlos Beltran's Injury Woes Hurt New York Mets Once Again

Center-fielder Carlos Beltran made a late season entrance for the New York Mets last year. Most of his season was missed due to surgery on his right knee, one that was not cleared by the Mets. 

After having someone perform surgery on your one knee, you're more likely to favor the other one in hopes of not re-injuring it again, right?

Well, that was Beltran's thinking, but that move came back to bite him in the rear.

Now Beltran suffers from tendinitis in his left knee—causing him to miss the rest of play this week in the Grapefruit League.

While this is only a minor injury, for now, there is a chance that this could possibly snowball for the rest of spring training and into the regular season.

Beltran, who hasn't played over 100 ball games since 2008, can really help the Met's organization this year.

Critics don't have them making it far in the regular season, even with the amount of talent they have on their roster—Beltran, being a center-piece.

His big bat has shown in the past that he can steadily hit 25-plus home runs in a season—another thing he hasn't done since the 2008 season.

For now though, Beltran has to take the rest of spring training easy. That's just what new manager Terry Collins wants  him to do too.

"Maybe he just overdid it," Collins said. "He has been in every drill from the first day here. I told him the first morning we talked when he walked in this camp that, 'Hey, look, we'll monitor what goes on here. I'm not expecting you to do everything.' And he has done everything. So now we're just going to slow him down a little bit."- Andy Martino NYDailyNews.com

Recovery from his past surgery and trying to stay healthy should be at the top of his list throughout spring training and into the first weeks of the regular season.

There's 162 games in the lengthy MLB season, he just needs to take his time getting back into form.