Beltran, Carlos

It's usually the wrong thing to mention "outside" issues when projecting performances. As one old enough to remember the Bronx Zoo years of the New York Yankees, I can attest to the fact that teams can play just fine with all kinds of distractions. The current New York sports scene is filled with players with colorful, to say the least, private lives in and outside of marriages. But it becomes a matter for this forum when a player's health situation is affected by these "outside" factors. The Mets have, since the Wilpon family bought out the Doubledays, had reputation for... the polite word to say it is not having a clear management structure. The embarrassing mishandling of the firing of Willie Randolph was merely the most public of a series of "who's in charge" moments amidst rumblings about the actions of Jeff Wilpon, owner Fred Wilpon's son, often revolving around decisions made without proper authorization that would then have to be un-done or lived with.

No one knows how the conversations went between Omar Minaya, rumored to be increasingly isolated from team decision-making, and Carlos Beltran, regarding the off-season rehabilitation of his chronic knee issues. We have officially entered the "we are family" portion of that programming. It was a just the latest in a series of thoroughly unprofessional incidents involving the Mets, and you have to wonder whether all due diligence was done for the ongoing health of Beltran, one of the best players in baseball and a major investment for the Metropolitans.

But what we do know is that Beltran underwent surgery and there is a controversy as to whether this was done with Minaya's permission, the Mets as a team, or how. The procedure was evidently a standard scoping and not micro-fracture as sometimes reported, but it's still hard not to be nervous. The spectacularly talented Beltran is 33 in April. He has never consistently been a high-average hitter and derives much of his value both in fantasy and real baseball from his legs. He was off to a marvelous start in 2009 riding in part on in-play results 50 points above his career average. What he will be when he comes back is anyone's guess. Beltran was to start baseball activities 12 weeks from the surgery, which would place it in mid-April, so with rehabilitation, a early or mid-May return might be in order. .265-65-18-70-10 in 425 AB