Carlos Delgado Strains Oblique, Season Likely Over

Hey it must be any day of the week today, because there's New York Mets injury news to report on. I know, I'm shocked too.

First baseman Carlos Delgado was in the process of working his way back from surgery to remove a bone spur in his right hip and to mend a torn labrum when he suffered a setback down in Florida. Delgado has strained an oblique and it's going to be at least two weeks before he can even resume baseball activities, cutting the chance he'll return to the Mets this season to just about nil.

"The one thing you could say is this hip is feeling better, so it's unfortunate that this popped up," said Mets assistant general manager John Ricco, the ranking executive with the team in Arizona. "The season is getting shorter. We're going to run out of days at some point."

Ricco said it was unclear when Delgado sustained his latest injury, but he began feeling pain after traveling to Port St. Lucie to continue his rehab Saturday. Delgado returned to New York on Tuesday, and was examined by team physician Struan Coleman on Wednesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Of course this also means that Delgado's tenure in New York may be over as well. His contract is up after this season, and depending on what direction the Mets would like to move in for 2010, we can't be sure they're going to be interested in signing a 37-year-old first baseman.

If they would like to bring him back next season, though, they'd probably be better served to just let him take his time getting healthy and not bring him back at all in 2009. It's not like the Mets are going to make up the 11 games they currently trail the Phillies by, so there's no point to it.