It's been a whirlwind week in Mets land. Rarely is that ever a good thing, especially for them. The Mets started the week by throwing three players under the bus because they didn't show up to an optional meet and greet and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The week ended with the announcement that their best pitcher, Johan Santana, will miss the rest of this season due to an injury to his shoulder.

I'm not going to get on Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo, and Oliver Perez for not attending the event at Walter Reed. It was not a mandatory event. I'm unsure about the others, but Carlos Beltran is well known for his charitable contributions. Not showing up for one event and getting murdered for it is absolutely ridiculous, even for the New York Sports Media. Sure, Castillo's "I get creeped out by injured soldiers" and Ollie's "I don't talk about my private life" excuses were lame but it's well within their right to deny attending.

Don't doubt that the Wilpons had nothing to do with this. In their minds, the Beltran, Castillo, and Perez contracts were huge albatrosses (and to be fair, two of them are) and any chance to smear them publicly they will instantly take. I hope that there's nothing else going on in this story and it's not some sort of anti-Latin sentiment, although some rumors that have been floating around suggest a big divide in the Mets clubhouse.

Perhaps more ridiculous than the Walter Reed fiasco is this article by Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. Abraham, the former Yankees writer, believes that the Red Sox and Yankees not trading for Santana was "the best decision they ever made."

"Imagine how happy [the Yankees and Red Sox] are now. [Johan Santana] needs shoulder surgery and nobody is sure when he will be back. The lefty, whose velocity has been in decline, may never be the same again and the Mets still owe him $77.5 million over three years...For the Mets, who specialize in disasters, this is a doozy. Meanwhile, Lester and Hughes became All-Stars at a small percentage of the cost...Epstein and Cashman are good friends and you have to wonder if sometime in the last 24 hours they exchanged text messages or e-mails celebrating the best deal they never made."

I'm not really sure why people are making such a big deal about Santana's injury. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus quoted a doctor saying "full velocity in 9-10 months" which would put him at full strength by either the start of the season or June at the latest.  Sure, Santana's velocity has dropped over the past couple of years but the drop is not overly concerning, maybe a couple of MPH since 2007. Perhaps most importantly, it's not even like Santana has been bad with the Mets. He's consistently outpitched his peripherals, but that's not a concern as he's done that his entire career (seriously, look it up, it's actually pretty surprising). 

Yes, the Yankees and Red Sox should be celebrating that they didn't trade Lester or Hughes for Santana. The Mets should not feel bad, however, that they ended up with the best pitcher in baseball at that time and gave up nothing to get him. The difference between the Mets and the Yankees/Red Sox was that the Twins were asking for major prospects from the AL teams and ended up with absolutely nothing of value from the Mets. Only Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, and Phil Humber have found the major leagues and none of them have been any good. In fact, none of them are even on the Twins anymore.

It's far from a "doozy." This isn't some sort of career ending injury. Santana will be fine and return and show all those who doubt him how good of a pitcher he really is.