Santana feels good and is projected Opening Day starter
Johan Santana throws against the Miami Marlins in the first inning of a spring training baseball game in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (March 11, 2012) Credit: AP
JUPITER, Fla.
Johan Santana, after Saturday's simulated game, convinced the Mets that he is capable of taking the mound for his Opening Day start at Citi Field, as scheduled. Now Santana must do it again Sunday, when Terry Collins plans to complete the team's rotation, with or without him as the No. 1.
"We'll meet and make a decision on where we're headed," the manager said. "We're going to make something official. I want to make sure, because you're talking about heading into the first week. If it's not going to be him, we've got to make the decision who's going to pitch when."
If Santana wakes up Sunday without any issues, he will be at the front, likely followed by R.A. Dickey, Jonathon Niese, Mike Pelfrey and Dillon Gee. If Santana is not quite 100 percent, and the Mets don't feel comfortable sending him to the mound, he'll go to the back of that line, with Dickey drawing the Thursday opener against the Braves.
There is little reason to suspect the latter option, however, after Santana's tightly controlled simulated game Saturday morning. The Mets wanted to keep him out of harm's way for his last outing, which is why Santana threw in the main stadium's bullpen to Dan Warthen, who impersonated the likes of Michael Bourn, Brian McCann and Dan Uggla.
Santana threw a total of 39 warm-up pitches and 32 in game situations. He also stopped twice to simulate the breaks between innings. He appeared to be in a good mood throughout, but just as he has throughout the rehab process, Santana refused to make any predictions.
"We'll see how it goes [Sunday],'' Santana said. "Once I get here, and go through all the routine, we'll decide what we're going to do. But today I had a good day. I warmed up, everything was good, I did a couple ups and downs with my bullpen, and I felt great."
Santana did say his previous start, a five-inning, 88-pitch struggle against the Cardinals, left him a little worn out. But that was to be expected, and he was pleased that his body rebounded for Saturday's tuneup, when he threw in a more effortless fashion.
"It was a tough day, it was a rough day," Santana said of that game start earlier in the week. "It was the first time I went over 80 pitches -- or even 60, 70. I just felt it a little bit. But I was able to battle through it and throw all my pitches. I recovered and I'm fine."
Said Warthen: "It's spring training. He hasn't been out there for a number of months, and getting out there with that volume of pitches, the pounding, the landing, and the bending and whatever else, anywhere from his big toe from somewhere around his neck probably just ached and pained."
But Santana didn't suffer a single setback from the start of spring training, and in doing so, he logged his required five starts. He finished with a 3.44 ERA and struck out 13 with seven walks in 181/3 innings.
Santana's next start -- whether it's Thursday or later -- will be his first in the majors since Sept. 2, 2010. Twelve days after that date, he had surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder.
"It's great, man," Santana said. "It's great. I worked hard. And then to be here right now, and be able to do everything the way it was supposed to be done, didn't miss one day, it's huge for me.
"But we still have to work. We're not done yet. We're just in the beginning of everything. The season hasn't even started. I have to get into a season and that's what we're looking forward to, but as of right now, everything has been good and I feel great."
