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March 10, 2009 Latest Post Joe Janish

Mets Release Duaner Sanchez

After another underwhelming outing, Duaner Sanchez was released by the New York Mets.

Sanchez topped out at only 84 MPH in a spring training game against the Orioles, allowing three hits, a walk, and two runs in one inning. He did, however, strike out two. In five appearances this spring, Sanchez spun five innings, allowing five hits, three runs, and six walks, while striking out four. His ERA is 3.60.

From Adam Rubin’s blog:

“We looked at it, really, his overall performance based upon last year to where he is now,” GM Omar Minaya said. “We really didn’t see the improvement we felt was needed to be effective in the major leagues. I thought he was improving some. We sat down and talked about it yesterday, late after the game.”

Minaya said the Mets had too many other attractive options in the bullpen. The move appears to directly help Bobby Parnell, although it could allow for a second lefthander to join Pedro Feliciano as well.

Personally, I’m not sure how this move helps Bobby Parnell, who has been getting battered around himself. If anything, it helps Rule 5 picks Darren O’Day and Rocky Cherry, as well as Brian Stokes and Connor Robertson.

Minaya also said the move was made as a favor to Sanchez, as it will be easier for him to hook on with another club now rather than later in the spring. Though, the quick release certainly doesn’t hurt the finances — by cutting him now, the Mets owe only $276,339 of his $1.6875M salary. Hmm …. that gives the Mets some payroll flexibility to sign, say, Pudge Rodriguez.

Sanchez was released because the Mets were unhappy with his lack of improvement over last season, though Minaya believed he was working hard. Minaya supposedly told Rubin that the Mets “…had too many other attractive options in the bullpen.” Well, Sanchez certainly has shown to be only a shell of his former self, but I have yet to see anyone out of the bullpen showing to be head and shoulders above Duaner. As bad as Sanchez looks in the second week of March, he did appear in 66 games last year, mostly as a 7th or 8th-inning reliever. I’m not so certain he’s so awful that he isn’t worth keeping around as a long man / mopup guy, in the hopes he can regain his velocity. Bottom line is the finances — if Sanchez’s salary was under $1M, he’d likely still be around.

Some interesting quotes by Sanchez from Rubin’s article:

“I don’t like the result,” Sanchez said after that appearance. “… I like how my arm feels and everything else. I’m not worried about the shoulder. When you get the results is when the season starts. … Last season basically was part of my rehab, if you put it that way. You’re doing rehab for a year and a half and are jumping right into the season. I got no rest or anything else. It was just part of the rehab. Did I like the results from last season? No. Definitely no. That’s not me. But I was trying to compete with what I had last year.”

As for now, Sanchez added: “My arm is not bothering me. It’s not getting sore the next day after I pitch. I feel really good. … I’m just trying to build up my arm so it can be like ’06.”

Someone will jump on Sanchez, who on a minor league deal and the MLB minimum will be worth rolling the dice to see if he can come back.

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Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. Timo March 10, 2009 at 12:12 pm
    I’m said to see him go. He had one great year (2006) with the Mets. I thought that trade was genious by Omar but now, not seo. Maybe we can get Jae Weong Seo back, Weong likely! Haha!
  2. Micalpalyn March 10, 2009 at 11:32 pm
    Joe: I agree that $$ is a primary factor. I am not sold on Stokes either, and I think Parnall will start at AAA, O’Day could make the cut …more as a Steven Register redux. BUT I also think Omar intends to apply those $$$ to Beimel or Ohman. I’d like to see Parnal start in Buffalo setting up Kunz (or vice versa).
  3. isuzudude March 11, 2009 at 8:45 am
    I agree with Mic in that I think it behooves the Mets to start Parnell out this season at AAA in some type of closer’s role, whether he’s sharing those duties or holding them exclusively. It seems like every scout who has watched Parnell says that his fastball is terrific, but he needs work on everything else. And in the major leagues, there’s no way a pitcher can make it successfully thru 6 or 7 innings relying on just one pitch. That means Parnell is best suited for a bullpen role, where he can max out on his best pitch working just an inning or two at a time, all the while continuing to work on his secondary pitches. I think making Parnell close at AAA gets him used to the big pressure situations and would speed up his maturation as a future reliever.
  4. joe March 11, 2009 at 10:15 am
    THE FOLLOWING ARE FROM MICALPALYN, who can’t comment right now due to a technical issue:

    What….. agreement? Gasp 🙂 Thanks Isuzu.

    I’ll actually piggy back three more points;
    1. I think BP could be better than Kunz in that he has a better FB.
    2. I think Kunz and BP could be a good tandem and push each other.
    3. I think NOW is the time to WORK on Parnell, One article says as a starter he sits in the low 90s but can reach 95. BUT as a reliever they want him to stop being conservative and throw his BEST FBs. As such that says he needs to dedicate himself to the reliever role at least for now.