NEW YORK -- Mets closer Bobby Parnell has a partially torn elbow ligament after just 25 pitches this season and might need surgery. Bryant Reeves Grizzlies Jersey . The injury means 36-year-old Jose Valverde is likely to take over as closer for now in an already thin bullpen. Valverde, a three-time All-Star, has struggled with control in recent years. Parnell gave up Denard Spans tying double in the ninth inning during Mondays opening 9-7 loss to Washington. It was the right-handers first save opportunity since a neck injury that required surgery and sidelined him for the final two months last season. He complained of tightness in his right elbow after Mondays game. The Mets said the 29-year-old was examined Tuesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery, had an MRI and was diagnosed with a partial tear of the right medial collateral ligament. Also Tuesday, injured Mets starter Jonathon Niese pitched five innings in a simulated game at the clubs spring facility in Florida. The left-hander allowed four runs, two earned, and five hits while throwing 76 pitches. Niese was hampered by elbow inflammation in spring training. He could come off the disabled list to start on Sunday against Cincinnati. New York plans to bring up Kyle Farnsworth to take Parnells roster spot before Wednesdays game against the Nationals. Infielder Wilmer Flores also is likely to be recalled from the minors to replace second baseman Daniel Murphy, who would go on paternity leave. Parnell was 5-5 with a 2.16 ERA and 22 saves in 26 chances last year. He averaged 92.1 mph for 20 two-seam fastballs during Mondays outing, according to fangraphs.com, down from 94.9 mph last year and 96 mph in 2012. New York said he received a plasma injection and will rest about two weeks. Parnell then will start a throwing program, and a decision on surgery will be made after that. The Mets already are without sidelined ace Matt Harvey, who is likely to miss the entire season following elbow surgery Oct. 22 on a partial tear of his right ulnar collateral ligament. Several pitchers have torn elbow ligaments this year, including Atlantas Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy, Arizonas Patrick Corbin, Detroits Bruce Rondon, and Oaklands Jarrod Parker. Braves pitcher Cory Gearrin is being examined for a ligament injury. Valverde has 286 saves in an 11-year big league career with Arizona, Houston and Detroit. He was 0-1 with a 5.59 ERA for Detroit last year, converting nine saves in 12 chances before he was cut from the big league roster in mid-June 21. He then had seven saves with a 4.09 ERA in 11 games at Toledo and was released Aug. 7. He got four straight outs Monday in his Mets debut, striking out Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper. Custom Memphis Grizzlies Jerseys . On Friday night, after a long rain delay, he was scratched from his scheduled start. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Grizzlies Jersey . He says he will have the operation Wednesday and be ready in time for training camp in September. Bernier missed five games in March due to the injury.GLENDALE, Ariz. - The entire world will be watching Glendale on Sunday as it hosts the Super Bowl and the legions of fans who are shelling out big bucks to see the big game.What may be not visible amid all the hoopla is a sobering reality about the Super Bowl host city: Glendale is suffering deep financial issues over its troubled effort to become a sports destination.Glendale bet big on professional sports in the last 15 years, spending millions of dollars on a hockey arena for the Arizona Coyotes and investing heavily in a spring training ballpark for the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. Then the economy tanked, and the hockey team went through bankruptcy, with several different owners in recent years.The city has found stronger financial footing since then and its bond rating has improved markedly, but not without having to raise taxes, trim 25 per cent of the municipal workforce, cut back on paving projects, and reduce hours at municipal swimming pools and libraries. The 9.2 per cent sales tax that shoppers and diners pay in Glendale is among the highest in the state.To fiscal conservatives, Glendale serves as a cautionary tale for suburban cities across the United States that want to throw public money at professional sports projects.Overall, its a bad move for cities, said Kurt Altman, general counsel for the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, which fought Glendale over its enticements to the hockey team. As much as they say its going to make the city a destination, it just doesnt.Glendale is a city of about 250,000 people in the northwest part of the Phoenix metro area. The location where the Arizona Cardinals stadium and the Arizona Coyotes arena were built had been a dusty farm area. The agricultural influence is visible to people driving to games when they pass tractors and farm equipment in nearby fields.As the Coyotes and Cardinals sought new facilities in the early 2000s and efforts failed to build them in other parts of the Phoenix area, Glendale stepped in. The city helped pay for the Coyotes arena with $167 million in bonds in 2003, and as the hockey teams finances began to fade during the recession, Glendale went all-in to keep the team in Arizona. The city dished out $50 million earlier this decade to keep the team and continues to make annual payments toward the arena, but the money it is gettting in return has not met expectations. Kyle Anderson Grizzlies Jersey. .The football stadium was built in 2006, but Glendale was not on the hook for the costs of the $450 million retractable-roof facility. It was funded primarily with new taxes on car rentals and hotels in the Phoenix area, but that financing hit a snag last year when a judge ruled that the car rental tax was unconstitutional, leaving a major funding source for the Super Bowl venue in jeopardy. The issue is still being argued in the courts.Glendale is far from alone. Cities and states nationwide have long struggled with how much public money to spend on stadium projects. The effort to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings became embroiled in controversy over a financial commitment by the state that opponents said was excessive. The St. Louis Rams are at the centre of a debate over whether to spend public money on a new stadium. Topeka, Kansas, is immersed in a fight over a motorsports track that has drawn comparisons to hockey in Glendale.As he navigates the financial situation, Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers returns to a maxim he has repeated many times in his life: Im not living in the past. Im just paying for it.In the case of the Super Bowl, he believes the city is paying dearly. He said Glendale will actually lose a couple million dollars by hosting the event. Its spending huge amounts of money on overtime and police and public safety costs for the Super Bowl but not getting much back.Super Bowl visitors are mostly staying in Phoenix and Scottsdale and only showing up in Glendale on game day, meaning the city wont see much of a boost in tax revenue. And the city was hoping the state would reimburse Glendale for its police overtime costs, but lawmakers have scoffed at the idea.Weiers said it pains him that the city had to cut services and lay off workers, but the moves were necessary to ensure financial solvency. He said the outlook has improved in the last year, a far cry from a couple years ago when Glendale was in jeopardy of joining the likes of Detroit in the category of municipal bankruptcies.I have to believe that if 1 is perfect as things could be and 10 was bankruptcy, Id say we were a strong 8, Weiers said. We never had to go there, and I strongly believe we wont have to go there.___Follow Josh Hoffner at http://twitter.com/JoshHoffner. ' ' '