John Maine said he plans to consult more doctors, probably tomorrow, to find out the cause of his right shoulder problems, but he insisted he let the Mets know that he was against their decision to put him on the 15-day disabled list.
Speaking yesterday for the first time since the Mets announced Friday night that he was being put on the DL with what they called “right shoulder weakness,” Maine said the shoulder did have some weakness. But he added that’s not really the problem.
“It’s not dead arm. It’s not weakness,” he said. “It’s nothing like that. I don’t know.
“But I guess they want to get to the bottom of it once and for all, what’s going on back there. But I feel that I’m more than capable of going out there every five days. But it’s not my decision and they decided to do that. They’ve got to look out for me, so that’s what they did.”
Asked if he protested the DL move, Maine said he did.
“I think ‘protest’ is the wrong word,” he said. “I told them I can go out there every five days and pitch. I think they understand that, but they also understand that there’s still something going on back there.”
Maine lasted only five pitches on Thursday in Miami, reaching velocities of just 82-85 mph, before manager Jerry Manuel pulled him.
Maine said the injury is in “the same area” as the shoulder fatigue that limited him to 15 starts last year (after shoulder surgery in 2008), but insisted it is not as serious.
Additional reporting by Dan
Martin