Freddy Garcia Released

Wait, Freddy, you can’t quit — because YOU’RE FIRED!

The Freddy Garcia Experiment has officially ended, as the Mets released the righthander.

Hat tip to Walnutz.

Garcia never could get his velocity back up to a point where he could succeed at the MLB level — which is a major problem for someone who spent his career as a power pitcher. He might have been able to convert into a crafty competitor, but not throwing 83-84 MPH — only Jamie Moyer gets away with that.

Regardless of the outcome, I still believe that this was a sound gamble on the part of the Mets. In the end it cost them only a minor league contract packed with incentives that never were reached.

Look at it this way: the Mets spent very little in gambling on Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia, and so far their success rate is 50%. Also consider that they have very little in the way of MLB-ready starting pitching prospects, so it’s not as if Garcia was stealing innings from anyone. If anything, Dillon Gee and Jonathan Niese probably need to be back down at AA — both are struggling mightily in Buffalo.

By the way – taking Garcia’s place on the roster is Nelson Figueroa, who is pitching tonight against Kevin Mulvey of the Rochester Red Wings.