On the Mets beat

After a relatively quiet spring, Monday was a bit hectic at Mets' camp, with Guillermo Mota arriving to work out for the first time and Duaner Sanchez getting ready to leave again for another operation on his right shoulder. Both are question marks this season for different reasons. Mota is suspended 50 games for testing positive for steroids, and no one knows how effective he will be when he returns, presumably drug-free. As for Sanchez, who fractured a small bone in his right shoulder, the best-case scenario has him back in August, but there's no guarantee he'll pitch at all this season.

The Sanchez news was a bit of shock, but I have to say I was a little surprised by how strongly the Mets defended Mota, an admitted steroid user. Of course, he's a teammate, so that's part of it. And Mota seems to be well-liked, too. But one of the quotes I didn't squeeze into today's paper from David Wright
suggested that this is a one-shot deal (no pun intended). Another screwup by Mota, and not only is he suspended for 100 games, but he will lose a lot of friends in the game as well.

Here's the unabridged version of my conversation with Wright on Mota's situation:

"He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s suffered, and definitely financially,from taking the hit in a free agent year trying to use performance enhancing drugs. So I think he’s being punished. You’re talking about almost a third of the season, so I think he’s learned his lesson. But he’s a guy that we’re going to rely on in our bullpen. I’m against any kind of performance-enhancing drugs. If you take it, and you get caught, there’s a very severe penalty. I think he’s serving that. He’s fessed up to that. He’s been a man about it and he’s serving his suspension. Hopefully he doesn’t make this mistake again.

"When you're talking about teammates, you're talking about your extended family, but I’m not condoning it at all. He made a mistake. In essence he cheated, and he got caught. I genuinely believe it won’t happen again, and as long as he learns his lesson, things will work themselves out. To be punished for a third of the season, that’s a very harsh penalty and something that obviously hurts us as a team, so we’re a little upset that we won’t have one of our best bullpen guys to start the year. Just make sure that it doesn’t happen again. That’s the message that we’ve sent to Guillermo, that we want him to understand that, Hey, the first time, maybe you were a little desperate or something like that. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again."