PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) -Johan Santana is about to turn 30 and he had knee surgery 4 1/2 months ago.
It’s hard to tell.
Smiling, joking and noticeably more relaxed than last year, the New York Mets ace showed up at spring training looking limber and fit – in better shape than pitchers six or seven years younger.
Then again, Santana is used to outdoing everyone. But if he finds a way to top his own Big Apple debut, that would be quite an encore.
“For me, everything last year was a learning process. And this year, I feel more comfortable. I feel now that I’ve been here for a while, so it’s a great feeling,” Santana said last weekend.
After arriving with jubilant fanfare and a record contract last year, the two-time Cy Young Award winner lived up to the hype during his first season with the Mets. He went 16-7 with a major league-best 2.53 ERA and 206 strikeouts in an NL-high 234 1-3 innings, despite pitching through knee pain down the stretch.
n when it traded four prospects to Minnesota for Santana and signed him to a $137.5 million, six-year deal – the richest ever for a pitcher at the time.
Even with Santana, the Mets collapsed in September and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season. But he certainly delivered under enormous pressure and dizzying expectations for a team still chasing its first championship since 1986.
“I think New York is a place where it could put you up here, and it can take you down,” Santana said, gesturing with his hand. “It’s all about you just being yourself. That’s what I did. I was myself. It’s just the way I am. … And they let you know. In New York, they let you know. So for me it was a matter of time.”
Santana’s signature moment came on the penultimate day of the season, with New York’s depleted bullpen in tatters.
Working on three days’ rest after throwing a career-high 125 pitches in his previous start, the left-hander tossed a three-hitter with nine strikeouts to beat Florida 2-0 and help the Mets pull into a tie for the NL wild-card spot.
It was a dramatic performance worthy of “Bravo!” calls on Broadway, and Mets fans were smitten.
The following day, however, the team was eliminated from playoff contention with a loss to the Marlins in the final game at Shea Stadium.
eft knee. Few people knew he had been pitching with pain in his push-off leg throughout September.
“I didn’t think about it,” said Santana, who turns 30 next month. “Just able to battle through it. It was a matter of being tough mentally and pitching. That’s all I was doing.”
Santana’s injury made his second-half numbers even more remarkable. He was 9-0 with a 2.09 ERA in his final 17 starts, earning NL pitcher of the month honors for September by going 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA and 47 strikeouts.
“I won’t say he was in Tiger Woods pain. Willis Reed, or anything like that,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said with a smile. “I like to give him his props, but I can’t give him that much.”
Earlier in the season, the fickle New York fans were slow to embrace Santana.
Many grumbled when he lost his home debut to Milwaukee, and he was criticized for not finishing a July game that New York’s struggling relief corps gave away against rival Philadelphia.
“I think every second-year player in New York makes an adjustment. It’s never really what they expect. They have to go through that first year,” Manuel said, mentioning that catcher Brian Schneider could also benefit this season. “I think the second year you’ll see a more relaxed player. … Nobody can really tell you what you’re going to experience until you actually experience it.”
m another Cy Young Award (he finished third in the voting). Mets relievers cost him seven potential wins, including five meltdowns that came in the ninth inning.
This season, New York added record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez and setup man J.J. Putz, which could do wonders for Santana’s win total. But what Santana cares about most is making sure his knee is healthy and leading the Mets to the playoffs during their first season in Citi Field.
Because of the surgery, insurance costs will prevent him from pitching for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic next month. Still, he said his elbow operation after the 2003 season with Minnesota required a tougher rehabilitation than this procedure on his knee.
“So far, I think it’s good. Everything is where it’s supposed to be,” Santana said after his first full bullpen session Sunday. “I don’t expect to be 100 percent right away. It’s going to take some time. We’ve got around seven weeks to get everything going and I’m pretty sure we’re not going to have any problems.”
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