Direct quotes from Assistant GM John Ricco
- "When he started to ramp up for his spring training program in early December was when he started feeling discomfort in his knee."
- "There is an issue regarding the process that was followed regarding the surgery."
- "Surgery was performed before we had the opportunity to do that [get third opinion]."
- "I'm not going to get into the legal ramifications right now."
- "All we've done is sent a letter to the agent alerting him to the fact that we were not afforded the opportunity we asked for."
- "We're just reserving our rights under his [Beltran's] contract."
- "The 12 weeks is the time frame before he can start full baseball activity."
- "The estimate right now is 12 weeks until be can *begin* baseball activity."
- "We're clearly not done putting this team together."
- "Clearly he had a symptom. ... He had a procedure he thinks can alleviate those symptoms."
- "We found out the surgery had been done Wednesday mid-day."
- "Omar has spoken with Carlos and we've had several conversations with Scott Boras."
- "It's disappointment on a couple of different levels."
- "This was not microfracture surgery. ... He is not a candidate for microfracture surgery."
Notes/Paraphrases from Ricco
- He was monitored by the medial staff. Ray Ramirez visited him in PR.
- Beltran visited Dr. Altchek. Had three MRIs on the knee.
- Altchek suggested backing off workouts to see if that helped
- Dr. Steadman suggested procedure, was a successful surgery. Beltran is still in Colo.
- Mets wanted third opinion on Beltran's knee and wanted to "digest" the info.
- There was communication between the doctors [Steadman & Altchek]
- Mets are most upset that surgery was done before third opinion, not that the surgery was done.