PORT ST. LUCIE — Johan Santana pitched for the first time this spring and for the first time against a major league team since Sept. 2, 2010 — if you consider a lineup with Shane Robinson leading off and Mark Hamilton batting sixth major league.
The 29 pitches against this version of the Cardinals went so well — namely Santana concluded with a big smile and no pain — that Terry Collins declared, “I don’t know that we can have a bigger step forward than that.”
It was joy in Mudville. Happiness for a club that has seemed on an endless loop of doomsdays. Santana worked two shutout innings. He was not overly crisp. But there were enough glimpses — a vintage swing-and-miss changeup to Yadier Molina, a Gold Glove-caliber reaction to initiate a double play on a sharp one-hopper, consistent velocity in the 88-89 mph range — that without context you could have mistaken this for merely a good shake-off-the-rust first outing from an ace.
In fact, for unfiltered optimism there was this from Cardinals veteran second baseman Skip Schumaker, who smacked into the double play: “It felt like the same guy [as the old Santana]. The velocity was not start-of-the-season velocity, but it felt pretty close. I am sure they are happy he is back on the mound, so I am unhappy to see it. Because he’s a No. 1 starter on any team.”
Now the public service in which we offer context. Where we note that within the euphoria, even the Mets know this was merely a hurdle in a long race of hurdles. Before a pitch was delivered yesterday, Collins had said the bigger deal would come tomorrow when Santana is slated for a normal between-starts bullpen. And Santana himself acknowledged, “That will be the key — the next couple of days, trying to throw my bullpen and see if I’ll be ready for my next start.”
The simple acts cannot be downplayed. After all, Santana was a calling card all last summer that never arrived. Twice he was shut down after minor-league rehab starts because his surgically repaired left shoulder did not respond well.
So now that he has amped up his efforts again, an organization monitors uneasily. Because even having to push back tomorrow’s pen would mean a lump of coal in March, a re-triggering of an unsettling cycle of gloom. Santana’s health simply cannot be overstated.
For even in the time of year of “ifs” — if Lucas Duda is a 30-homer man, if Ruben Tejada really can maintain a .360 on-base percentage — there is no bigger “if” for the Mets to dream impossible dreams than that involving Santana.
Consider that I had not seen Collins for months before Monday, and when I asked him merely what was up, he responded, “The main focus of this camp is the left-hander and, right now, he is all positives. If he is healthy, the dynamic of our team changes because he takes the heat off of so many others.”
Collins is so sensitive to preserving Santana’s health that he has plotted more than a month of the veteran’s regular-season starts, which brings us to, of all things, April 28. For the Mets’ off-days fall just so that Santana can start Opening Day April 5 and make his first four starts with at least one extra day of rest; weather permitting. The first time he would have to go with the normal four days’ rest is April 28 in Colorado.
But Collins has huddled with pitching coach Dan Warthen already about using a spot starter that day and having Santana go April 29. If so, with two more fortuitously placed off-days in early May, Santana could make his first seven starts on extra rest. But those are seven starts not yet promised, many hurdles between now and then in this race.
“We have to keep this guy healthy,” Collins said.
Of course they do. We saw how, for example, Mike Pelfrey melted last year with the weight of being the titular ace. You can see within an already depth-challenged roster the Mets’ rotation is thinner of arms than Angelina Jolie.
The Mets need Santana’s confidence and bubbly personality. They need his pitching savvy to allow him to succeed even if his fastball never regularly ticks above 90 mph again. They need their $24 million man to thrive within the realities of a shriveled $90 million payroll.
That is why the Mets will appreciate the positive first step yesterday — smiles, no pain. And why they will wait, worry, pray about the many hurdles ahead.