The Mets' Colossally Inept Medical Staff, Exposed In A Beat Writer's Twitter Rant

Adam Rubin, late of the New York Daily News and now of ESPN New York, is one of those guys who've been on the Mets beat as long as we can remember. (He remained on it despite a memorably bizarre incident in 2009 where Omar Minaya accused Rubin of writing bad things about the Mets because he wanted a job with the team.) But last night, as tends to happen occasionally with those of us who've been tied to the Mets for a while, he snapped, on Twitter. The catalyst was Sandy Alderson's comment on first baseman Ike Davis's injury last season:

• Sandy Alderson is quoted in Newsday re: Ike Davis as saying: "The treatment was correct and the recovery was just longer than we expected." • Except for the fact diagnosis of cartilage damage originally was missed and a boot Ike then wore constricted circulation and stalled healing • Sandy Alderson really is a straight shooter, generally, but that's too much spin.

And then the hits just kept on coming:

• One person begged me not to write Ike may have fracture as 2nd test approached. Turned out cartilage damage, not fracture, was missed. • Doctors advised J.J. Putz to have bone chips removed from elbow, which would've cost 6 weeks. Mets said shoot him w/ cortisone. He tore UCL. • Ryan Church says to Brian Schneider, 'Your knee looks swollen. Go see trainer.' Schneider to Church: 'They don't want to hear it.' • Mets exec calling Billy Wagner a wimp for complaining of elbow discomfort during sim game in Pittsburgh. Wagner needed Tommy John surgery. • Still haven't figured out rocket scientist behind having Jose Reyes bat righty vs. RHP after oblique injury. Injury lingered whole 2nd half. • Thanks for reminding me about Ryan Church flying from Atlanta to Colorado with concussion. He said he felt like boater bobbing on Bering Sea • Found oldie: Early in Reyes career, Mets wanted him tougher. They had Art Howe tell him "spit on it" to injury. Had undiagnosed fibula break

Matthew Callan at Amazin' Avenue has you covered for the journalismism bit of it—i.e., why are some of these stories coming out now for the first time—but before fretting about that we ought to pause and wonder exactly how things—on a major-league team that was winning not so long ago!—got this bad. Because this is pretty bad. Putz and Wagner and Church and Reyes (duh) all mattered to the team during its various failing late-2000s iterations, and the Mets' medical crew treated them like a distant father berating Little Leaguers. Jeez.

Call the Doctor [Amazin' Avenue] Adam Rubin [Twitter]