MLB

MAINE OPTIMISTIC AFTER SURGERY

As much as the Mets would have liked to use John Maine down the stretch, it appears then interim manager Jerry Manuel made the right decision by keeping his 27-year-old righty off the mound as the season went up in September smoke again.

When doctors shaved the bone spur on Maine’s shoulder on Sept. 30, they were stunned at the size of it.

“They told me it was the biggest one they’d ever removed, the biggest one they’d ever seen,” Maine said on Mets.com today. “They couldn’t believe I could throw with that in there.”

The surgery was a success and Maine can resume throwing in December.

“I feel great. I feel like I want to start throwing now,” Maine said. “That’s what I wanted to hear. So now I can be ready.”

Maine wanted to bring the spur home with him, but because they shaved it, as opposed to removing it, that was not an option. And if you have to have a bone spur …

“It might as well have been the biggest,” Maine said. “I don’t know exactly how big it was. I wanted them to save it for me. But they shaved it, they didn’t just cut it off. So I can’t tell. Now I just say it was the size of a softball”

Maine went on the disabled list on Aug. 4 with what was called a strained right rotator cuff. He returned to make three starts in August, with his final one coming on Aug. 23.

“Something’s going to have to be done,” Maine said then about having offseason surgery.

He returned to the DL on Aug. 25 and returned to the team on Sept. 24, but did not pitch again.