Johan...Will he be or not be? That is the question.

     There seems to be a lot of speculation regarding Johan and his return date. If you polled 100 different Mets players, coaches, front office staff or fans you would probably get 99 different opinions. The one opinion that matters though is the one from the man himself. In a January article on Yahoo Sports, by Associated Press reporter Ronald Blum, Santana goes into some detail about his projection.


Regarding his return date,


“It’s going to be tough for me to guess, because I don’t know how I’m going to be in two months.”


“I cannot tell you what’s going to happen in five, six weeks from now because I’d be lying to you. I’ve got to go one day at a time.”

     As most of you are probably already saying, these are standard responses from any pitcher coming of surgery. The biggest thing that sticks out at me is the person who is saying it and how it comes across. In his years on the Mets his has never backed away from making bold statements regarding himself. From what he is saying though makes it sound like a more subdued version of what we have become accustomed to seeing in previous years.

     If I had to be one of those 100 opinions being offered I would say he will be back with the team at some point during the spring but in a capacity of trying to get back into a comfortable routine. Unfortunately, I doubt he will be effective at all during the season and if he is it will be a pleasant surprise. If his fastball velocity is down the change-up won't have the speed difference needed to be effective. Same goes for his slider turned cutter, a pitch he used to feature quite a bit. After he got injured however it seemed as though he ditched the pitch. Don't get me wrong I hope he can perform above and beyond my expectations I just doubt that his three pitches will be effective post surgery.  

     That being said, I'd really like to get an idea for what everyone else thinks about this subject.