PORT ST. LUCIE – The Great Elbow Scare appeared to pass yesterday, but not without some apparent friction between Johan Santana and Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen.
The Mets were prepared to send their $137.5 million ace back to New York for an MRI exam on his sore left elbow, but abruptly reversed course just a few hours later and axed the trip altogether.
The anticipated snowstorm in New York that threatened to bog down air travel played a role in the decision, but general manager Omar Minaya said Santana’s encouraging, pain-free bullpen session earlier in the day was the overriding factor.
“He felt that he’s fine and that he doesn’t right now need to go to New York,” Minaya said while announcing the reversal during a 13-1 Grapefruit League rout of the Astros. “He’s going to be seen instead by our doctors whenever they come down here.”
The Mets agreed to Santana’s wishes after watching him cruise through a 31-pitch bullpen outing with no pain or problems. Santana didn’t throw any breaking pitches, starting with mostly change-ups before dialing up his fastball at the end.
But although the Mets seem to have averted disaster, Warthen and his star pitcher still weren’t on the same page publicly about what caused the tendinitis in Santana’s left triceps.
Santana repeated his assertion that the aggressive schedule for pitchers mandated by Warthen this spring – bullpen sessions every other day for six days at a time before resting – prompted the pain.
Warthen disputed that moments later, saying Santana over-exerted himself because of false hope the Mets would give in and let him pitch for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic despite offseason knee surgery.
“That’s my speculation, that he had his own quiet agenda, not sharing it with anybody else,” said Warthen, who is in his first full season as pitching coach. “He tried to throw too hard too soon.”
Santana agreed that he had hoped to pitch in the WBC, but indicated it was Warthen’s idea to throw so frequently.
“I was throwing bullpens every other day,” Santana said. “I think that’s what it was: Too much throwing too soon. Once they said I wasn’t pitching in the WBC, then we back off a little bit. But we were throwing a lot.”
How the tendinitis in Santana’s left elbow responded in the 24 hours following yesterday’s effort would tell the true story, but his initial reaction was all positive.
“I felt fine,” Santana said afterward. “It’s the first time in the last four days that I throw, but I feel good. I threw off the mound and felt fine. Nothing I felt would be any problems.”
The Santana drama started last Wednesday, when the star left-hander said he felt soreness in the back of his pitching elbow during a bullpen session.
That prompted manager Jerry Manuel to push back Santana’s spring game debut twice over the next two days and caused both manager and pitcher to say they couldn’t guarantee Santana would start Opening Day, April 6, in Cincinnati.
Though he said he remains “extra, extra, extra cautious,” Manuel was much more upbeat about Santana’s chances of being on the mound Opening Day after yesterday’s bullpen session.
“Very good,” Manuel said when asked for those Opening Day odds. “I don’t think he needs [a large] amount of time to get ready.”
Even so, the Mets plan to be much more careful with Santana from here on out. The every-other-day bullpen sessions will cease, and Warthen said Santana might not make his Grapefruit League debut until mid-March.
“No timetables,” Warthen said. “I know he would like to pitch Opening Day, [and] we’d like him to pitch Opening Day, but we’re not going to push that envelope whatsoever.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com