"Just like their players, the Mets are taking longer than expected to recover from last year's problems diagnosing and treating injuries.

On the heels of the recent controversial Carlos Beltran knee surgery, J.J. Putz is now publicly questioning the way the Mets handled his elbow injury.

And that wasn't just when he had pain during the season. Even though Putz had a bone spur in his elbow discovered by Mariners doctors during the 2008 season, the reliever told Comcast Chicago that he wasn't given a physical examination when the Mets acquired him in an 11-player deal in December 2008.

"It was a mess from the beginning," Putz said. "When the trade went down, I never really had a physical with the Mets. I had the bone spur, and it never got checked out by any other doctors until I got to spring training, and the spring training physical is kind of a formality.

"It was bugging me through April, and in May I got an injection. It just got to the point where I couldn't pitch. I couldn't throw strikes. My velocity was down."

Most significantly, Putz said he regrets allowing the Mets to convince him to continue pitching with the bone spur in the elbow - an injury that eventually required surgery.

"(I learned) that it's my career," Putz said. "And when you know something doesn't feel right, and they want to take these little sidesteps to do something, and just wait and wait and wait, you've got to get it taken care of instead of trying to prolong the inevitable."

Putz expressed similar sentiments privately to the Daily News last season.

Putz, in fact, was furious with the Mets, believing that the front office chose not to act on a recommendation by team physician Dr. David Altcheck to have surgery, convincing the reliever instead to get a cortisone shot that would allow him to continue pitching."