Sandy Alderson has defended the team's handling of right-hander Zack Wheeler during last season.
Wheeler complained of elbow pain in 2014, but still made 32 starts. The right-hander learned Monday that he has a torn elbow ligament.
"Let me just ask, why would we treat somebody like [staff ace Matt] Harvey with the kind of caution that we did and then throw somebody else under the bus -- somebody of essentially equal value to us as an organization?" the New York Mets general manager asked. "That wouldn't make any sense. I understand people can debate the number of pitches and the number of innings and this and that. We simply wouldn't treat two guys that differently.
"The other thing is, when a guy is being managed, you understand what the sort of apocalyptic result could be -- he blows something out. But the question is, what's the alternative? If it blows out, it blows out. The alternative is that you manage somebody to the point where he's not useful to you. ... And so the question is: OK, was the tear inevitable? Or is this a function of how he was used? From my standpoint, it's inevitable given the practicality of how somebody is used in the course of a major league season."