A Reason To Smile

Most talk about the Mets and injuries this year has involved bad news. A new injury, a setback, more cluelessness. However, one player has found their road to recovery.

Maybe we shouldn't be smiling about Johan Santana just yet. Maybe we should save any smiles for Opening Day. But maybe we should smile now because this fan base has been through hell and we deserve to smile about something.

Johan Santana has now made it healthily through a start of 65 pitches. Never mind the fact that he gave up his first runs of Spring Training. He got through the start and hasn't had any setbacks since.

Going into the spring the idea of having Johan for Opening Day was almost a pipe dream. No Met could ever recover from such an injury do reasonably (as if missing an entire season is reasonable). First, the long toss was okay. Then he threw off the mound. The reports were cautiously optimistic. He looked good but still had a long way to go before seeing game action. Then he was able to stay on schedule with his next bullpen session. And the bullpen session after that. The idea of Santana pitching in an actual game was becoming a reality. He threw one inning, then two. 20 pitches, 30 pitches, 65 pitches. He once again looked like the pitcher the Mets thought they were getting in 2008.

The Mets haven't had an "ace" since the middle of 2010. Series would go by with other teams putting their top starting pitcher against Mike Pelfrey or Jon Niese. Just the concept of actually having our top pitcher starting on Opening Day is a reason to smile. The concept that a cornerstone of this Mets team is almost back from a serious injury is a reason to smile. The concept of having one of baseball's best pitchers throwing 120 innings for the Mets is a reason to smile.

So stop thinking about all the unresolved injuries for a second and starting dreaming about the end of a long road to recovery. Smile for a second. It's not all bad.

Let's Go Mets!