Pete Alonso is going to bat for Noah Syndergaard.
The Mets first baseman took issue with a Sports Illustrated story examining whether pitchers should be getting Tommy John surgery while the nation’s health care system is strained by the coronavirus pandemic and after several states imposed a ban on non-essential surgery in order to free up resources to deal with COVID-19.
Syndergaard underwent a successful surgery last week at the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Fla., near the Mets’ spring training facility, and two surgeons told the team that the righty’s surgery met the necessary guidelines, The Post’s Mike Puma previously reported.
“Who is to judge someone’s medical needs in order to perform their job?” Alonso tweeted Monday in response to the story. “Noah’s surgery, or any other athlete’s surgery during this time shouldn’t be scrutinized considering it is done by orthopedic surgeons, not those on the frontlines battling this pandemic.”
Alonso, who has been one of the biggest supporters of health care workers and others on the front lines during the pandemic, seemed to take issue with the story raising the question not of whether athletes “can” have the surgeries, but whether they “should” elect to have them in this climate.
“Medical supplies are high in demand,” Alonso wrote. “The issue isn’t Noah needing surgery and getting it. The issue I have is that the tone of this article suggests that players are making the decisions to get surgeries.
“No athlete wants to go through a serious surgery and grueling recovery process. This surgery is done when it is absolutely necessary for their arm.”
In contrast, Red Sox starter Chris Sale had Tommy John surgery Monday in Los Angeles, following an 11-day wait because of difficulty in scheduling the operation during the coronavirus pandemic.
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“Under normal circumstances we might have been able to have it happen a little bit sooner,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said on a conference call with reporters. “We know that this is not life and death. … It’s apples and oranges with this versus when you talk about something that’s life-threatening.”
Syndergaard likely won’t be ready to pitch for the Mets again until around June 2021.