Sandy Alderson disclosed Tuesday that he underwent a “pre-planned” surgical procedure on May 11 to combat the cancer that he has been battling since last year. The Mets general manager, who said he has been working a limited schedule since then as he regains his strength, added that he is “still on a road to full recovery” from his cancer.
“It was part of an overall strategy that was devised by my doctors [at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center] early in December,” said Alderson, who hasn’t disclosed the specific type of cancer he has. “The surgery followed a very successful regime of chemotherapy. The surgery itself was, I’m going to say, fantastically successful. The doctors did everything they had hoped to and avoided everything they had hoped to avoid. So from that standpoint, everything worked out extremely well.”
He said that he felt compelled to confirm his procedure due to public speculation about it, though such speculation had remained rather under the radar.
The 68-year-old looked tired and pale, and he admitted, “I’m not running a four-minute mile at the moment. My mouth is a little dry from time to time. But that’s what happens when you have surgery of any type.”
No further surgery is planned, Alderson said. As for further chemotherapy, he said, “Right now, that’s a matter of future discussion with our doctors. Right now, I’m just recovering from the surgery.”
Alderson’s chemotherapy occasionally kept him out of the office, and he’s currently pacing himself as he tries to get back to full strength.
“I don’t expect this abbreviated schedule to last very long,” Alderson said.
“I expect to be here today. I expect to be here some portion of every day,” he added. “I’m in daily contact with ownership as well as the baseball operations department and anyone else who needs access to me, other than perhaps the media. So everything is going very well, and the only reason that I’m even mentioning was I thought it would be important to eliminate some of the speculation.”
Alderson and the Mets first announced Alderson’s diagnosis last December. Subsequent to that, Alderson told The Post’s Steve Serby that he learned of his cancer about four days after the Mets clinched the National League East title in September.
