Ronny Paulino Shut Down

On Friday, the Mets shut down Ronny Paulino based on some issues with his blood work. Test results due back either today or tomorrow will hopefully shed more light on the situation.

From CBS Sportsline:

“It has nothing to do with any other issues,” Alderson said. “It has to do with blood counts and things of that sort. (He) needs further testing. It could be nothing.

“Unfortunately, this is the weekend. An additional test was done on Friday we won’t get the results back until Monday or Tuesday. Given the initial lab work we just didn’t want him exercising.”

Mets manager Terry Collins said Paulino had been feeling fine.

“I’m pretty worried about it. I’m pretty worried about his health,” Collins said. “Ronny came in this later morning and he’s very discouraged that he’s going to miss time because he’s feeling great. He thinks he’s in great shape, he doesn’t feel any symptoms of things, but we medically have to take care of him.”

Maybe it’s nothing. Hopefully, it’s nothing. We likely wouldn’t give it a second thought, if it weren’t for “bad” blood tests taken by Jose Reyes around this time last year.

Granted, Paulino will miss the first week or so of the season as he serves the remainder of his PEDs suspension, and with the way Josh Thole has looked in spring training, few fans care one way or the other whether Paulino returns. But, Paulino is a human being, and he is one of “ours”, so we should be at least mildly concerned for his health. And after missing most of camp due to visa issues, Paulino really can’t afford to be out of action for very long, if he is to make a contribution in the first half of the season.

Let’s hope the blood work comes back clean, and Paulino is found to be in fine health and able to return to physical activity.