Victor Zambrano had Tommy John surgery yesterday. It was the second time in his career that he has had the operation. It was unexpected but the surgeon discovered the injury was worse then expected. Victor will be out for one year, at least. It is possible, at least according to the Daily News, that Zambrano's career is over. It is very difficult to come back after a second TJ surgery. Although not cast in stone, it is very likely that we have hit the end of the road in regards to the Victor Zambrano-Scott Kasmir saga.

I remember when the trade was made, we all groaned. We were told however that even though a trade like this may look bad now it cannot be judge for perhaps a year or two down the road. We are now down that road and we can now judge that trade. The Mets got hosed, plain and simple. On the Mets end, it was a bad trade because at the time the Mets hierarchy over estimated the team's ability to stay in the race. More importantly you never trade a young pitcher, especially a left handed pitcher with the upside of Scott Kasmir. But sometimes, although I didn't agree, to achieve a great reward you must take a great risk. Certainly the Mets took a huge risk assuming that if they could get Victor to be more consistent perhaps the Mets could have made a run for the playoffs. And why not, Zambrano had great stuff and had a winning record for a very bad team. Rick Peterson had success with many pitchers and thought he could straighten out Zambrano's problems. Did Peterson actually say that he could fix Zambrano in 10 minutes or was that spin by higher ups to cover their ass. I don' t think we'll ever know. Another mistake the Mets made was assuming that Kasmir was not yet ready for Major League play then of course Tampa Bay brought him up and proved otherwise.

There is no question as to the Mets blame in all of this but it is unfair to only chastise them when Tampa Bay and Victor himself are guilty too. First, it appears that Tampa Bay knew there was something wrong with Zambrano at the time of the trade. Their team doctors were not as forth coming as they should have been. Zambrano came to the Mets with some tendinitis in the elbow which the Mets were told was minor (makes you wonder how could the Mets have been that stupid even if they knew that much). And recently after the elbow blowout Zambrano admitted that he had been pitching hurt for a long time. How long I wonder?

Zambrano started his Mets career with mixed results, then in an afternoon game later in the summer of 2004, the date I don't recall, he pitched an absolute gem. He had great stuff, his pace was deliberate and for a split second one wondered if the Mets maybe really did know something the rest of us didn't. Shortly after that game, Zambrano's elbow acted up again and he was shut down for the rest of the season. Why not considering the Mets had long fallen out of the race.

Last season Zambrano was so so. He never pitched to the level of that one great game he threw for the Mets in 2004. He had a good stretch last year but was never a dominating factor. I had the pleasure of seeing him pitch awful twice last season. In one game he gave up 4 home runs in the first 2 innings, and they were rockets. I wondered then if there was something wrong with his arm. I'll bet Victor wondered the same thing or perhaps even last year he knew his elbow was being held together with rubber bands.

So where does the Zambrano trade rank in all time Met history? Hard to say but it has to be up there, certainly one of the top three worst including Ryan for Fregosi and Singleton for Joe Foy. And this Kasmir trade can get even worse. Could he end up in the Bronx someday when he is eligible for free agency? I'm sure Steinbrenner is already salivating at yet another chance to embarrass is cross town rivals. But remember, Kasmir right now is a very good young left handed pitcher, he is not Sandy Koufax. He is not even mentioned as one of the elite young arms in the game. So although we know that the Zambrano side of this deal is over, we still are not quite sure of how bad this deal is because it's still too early to know what kind a pitcher Kasmir will become but the future certainly looks bright for him.

But it is time to close this chapter. It is done. The time to move on is long over due. Certainly there has been enough if not too much written about this trade. It was a mistake and we all knew it would haunt use when it happened. Just imagine if the current Mets rotation included Pedro, Glavine, Kasmir, and Bannister with Pelfrey on the horizon. I certainly would have liked our chances. I am optimistic that Minaya understands the value of good young pitchers. If he had been the GM then, that trade doesn't get made. Hopefully Pelfrey and perhaps Soler will help us heal.

For a description of TJS - Wikipedia - Tommy John Surgery