Submitted by Dave Rosado

Mike Puma with the New York Post reports that some players on the Mets believe that the team is “babying” Jose Reyes, who’s working to return to shape after sitting out due to elevated thyroid levels.

The message in the story is something I’ve also been thinking: that the Mets are doing this not as much to purely protect Reyes as to protect themselves. That is, should they bring him back Opening Day, and he somehow gets hurt early, fans will be loud and angry, even if said injury was completely unrelated.

I’m sure they hear callers to Mike Francesa ripping them apart in their sleep…

I say, what’s the rush? I wouldn’t go crazy if he started Opening Day, but I wouldn’t mind if they held him back either. To me, he’s the single most important player (next to Johan Santana) on the team, and it wouldn’t hurt (no pun intended) to be a little extra cautious with him for a measly 5 games out of 162.

So we’d like to know: What do you think?