The New York Mets committed a lot of years and a lot of money to their ace Johan Santana, and for the most part they've received good results.  However, the past two seasons have been filled with injuries for the lefty.  Aside from his no-hitter last season, Santana struggled and battled stints on the DL and nagging problems.  Now, he expects to have a "normal" season.

Anthony DiCommo of MLB.com reported on how Santana felt after pitchers and catchers reporting day.  Santana said he feels fine and while we don't know what his definition of normal may be, he seems ready for the 2013 season.  Santana talked about his struggles in 2012 and being placed on the DL against his will.  Santana is not the cautionary type and wanted to keep pitching, but the Mets were leaning more on precaution.


Santana is in the final year of his contract, and his future is uncertain.  With the New York Mets, Santana has been good, but not great.  With the Minnesota Twins, he was great.  This is based not just on raw numbers, but on how he performed relative to the rest of the league.  He posted a better ERA+ in his time with Minnesota, higher strikeout ratio, and averaged fewer hits per nine innings.  That's not to say things got bad in New York because they haven't.

With the Mets, Santana is 46-34 with a 3.18 ERA (actually a lower ERA than his time in Minnesota).  Santana has two Cy Young awards under his belt and four All-Star appearances.  He's just 33, so if he can perform well this season, he should have every reason to expect one more big contract.  However, if he battles injuries again, he could start a downward path of one-year deals until his career is over.
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