Category: Roster

Mets Off-Day: Maine, Garcia, Hernandez Working

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While most of the Mets are enjoying a relaxing day off in Florida, several of the starting pitchers are working hard today. Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia are going up against each other in a minor league game. And John Maine canceled a golf game to work on his mechanics.

It seems like Hernandez has all but locked up the fifth spot in the rotation. The Mets even insist that they’ll use five starting pitchers to begin the season. I’m not sure why they would do that when they really don’t need a fifth starter for several weeks. Hernandez has proved himself able to work as well as possible with well below average stuff. He’s got a 3.07 ERA in 14.2 spring innings. You certainly can’t ask for more than that from a fifth starter.

Contrast that with Freddy Garcia, who looks like he’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to face major league hitters. He’s got a 16.71 ERA in 7 innings of work so far. The only way you could describe his work this spring is “ugly”. He’ll have a big decision coming up soon. That’s whether he wants to pitch at Triple-A Buffalo and hope for an opening with the Mets at some point this season or if he wants to be released. If he’s released he could get a shot at a job at the major league level somewhere else. Honestly, I don’t even think that the Dodgers would take him now. And they’re really hurting for starting pitchers.

John Maine is working on an ERA over 10 so far this spring and just really looks out of sorts. I don’t take too much from that because I’ve seen what he can do when he’s healthy. But there is reason for concern that he just hasn’t been able to recover from the offseason shoulder surgery that he had. He’s locked into the #4 spot in the rotation no matter what right now. But if he has a couple of bad starts at the beginning of the season we’ll all need to be concerned.

Mets P Tim Redding Injured

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Tim Redding’s spring training hasn’t started very well. He’s been shelled pretty much every time out so far. And now we have word from Mets GM Omar Minaya that Redding is suffering from “weakness” in his right shoulder. Now some would say that his right arm has always been pretty weak but this time its an actual injury.

Redding will be on the disabled list when opening day rolls around on April 6 and he won’t pitch anymore this spring. Normally, this wouldn’t be very significant for the Mets. But the fifth starter situation has become so dubious over the past three weeks that this does now impact the team.

Remember that the Mets won’t need a fifth starter for the first two or three weeks of the season anyway. So there isn’t an immediate need to sort out the situation. And we also have to remember that we are talking about the fifth starter. We’ve seen some awful pitching from Redding, Freddy Garcia, and decent work from Livan Hernandez this spring.

There are still some alternate options like Brian Stokes and Nelson Figueroa when he gets back from the Puerto Rican team in the World Baseball Classic. So I’m not that worried about this issue now, and I’m certainly not advocating signing Pedro Martinez. I saw enough of him the last three years to know that he just doesn’t have it anymore.

Mets Santana Takes Spring Mound Tonight

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All eyes will be on Johan Santana tonight, taking the mound for the first time in a game situation this spring. Apparently, the elbow tightness that troubled him earlier this month is no longer an issue. At least that’s what we’re hearing.

Santana has thrown a bullpen session and two batting practice sessions without ill effects. So the Mets are giving their most prized pitcher the “A-OK” to take the mound in a game.

The Mets play against the Marlins tonight in a rare 7:10pm start for a spring game. The game will be broadcast on SNY and MLB Network.

I only expect Santana to pitch two innings tonight. They’re not going to push him beyond his limts. All of the other pitchers started out throwing two innings in a game so I’d be shocked if the Mets pushed Santana beyond that.

Keep your fingers crossed that he makes it through a couple of innings with a pain-free elbow.

Mets Pagan Opts For Surgery

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Angel Pagan will be out until sometime in May. He decided yesterday to have arthriscopic surgery on a bone spur in his elbow. It’s a solid decision, if he decided to rehab and it didn’t get better he could miss the entire season.

Pagan only has 2.144 years of MLB service time going into this season. So the Mets could send him to Triple-A Buffalo when he recovers from surgery, that’s the gamble that he’s taking. If he rehabs the elbow and it responds quickly, he could be on the major league roster next month.

I assume that Bobby Kielty will make the major league team, in the roster spot that Pagan would’ve had. If Kielty makes in impact, Pagan could be buried in the minors all year.

We’ll see how this plays out.

Angel Pagan Considering Surgery

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The bone spur in Angel Pagan’s elbow may require surgery. But that surgery wouldn’t cause Pagan to miss the entire season. Great news for the Mets!

If Pagan does opt for surgery he’ll miss 6-8 weeks according to the NY Post.

I’d like to know what the other option(s) are for Pagan. I assume that he may miss less time if he opts to rehab the injury without surgery but runs the chance that rehab won’t cure the problem.

Mets Release Duaner Sanchez

Duaner SanchezThere’s been so much chatter recently about the Mets having a looming decision about whether to keep Duaner Sanchez or release him. I thought they would at least give him a look until the end of March.

By releasing him now the Mets are only responsible for one-sixth of his $1,687,500 salary for the 2009 season. The Mets didn’t have much of a choice after he got knocked around pretty well last season. He didn’t look great this spring either. I watched him get knocked around a bit yesterday against the Orioles. He was only able to hit 89 mph on the radar gun yesterday and that was high for him over the past two seasons.

From the NY Times:

“We looked at it, really, his over all performance based upon last year to what we see now and we didn’t see the improvement,” Minaya said.

This could end up being a good thing for Sanchez. He could sign a minor league deal elsewhere and have a chance to work his way onto the major league roster. He didn’t have options so the Mets had to keep him on the major league roster or release him.

After not pitching at all in 2007 after an accident in a taxi in July 2006, he came back last season to very mixed results. He had a 4.32 ERA and 1.320 WHIP in 66 games in 2008. He was really a shadow of his former self with very reduced velocity and couldn’t find himself as a finesse pitcher.