3:20pm: Alderson confirms Farnsworth has been released, but could be re-signed in a couple of days, tweets Rubin. MLB.com's Anthony DiComo tweets the Mets tried to re-sign him today, but there may be interest from another club.
1:20pm: Rubin tweets a source tells him Farnsworth and the Mets are in talks presumably discussing a minor league deal with an in-season opt out.
11:47am: Kyle Farnsworth has decided to exercise the out clause in his contract with the Mets, agent Barry Meister told Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. The reliever was informed by GM Sandy Alderson and assistant GM John Ricco earlier today that he would not be on the Opening Day roster.
"The Mets gave him every opportunity and we are very appreciative of the way Sandy and John handled the situation," Meister said.
Farnsworth, 38 in April, spent last season with the Rays and Pirates, posting a combined 4.70 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 45.5 percent ground-ball rate. ERA estimators such as FIP (4.14), xFIP (3.73) and SIERA (3.64) all feel that Farnsworth was better than the 4.70 mark indicates. However, he also posted his lowest K/9 rate since his rookie season in 1999 and his 92.6 mpg average in fastball velocity was a career-low.
Edward Creech contributed to this post.
Good decision. He looks terrible. I’d rather go with the kids.
but the Mets won’t go with the kids, they’ll go with a different washed up veteran who is just above useless
He just doesn’t have “it” anymore.
I don’t get why he’d do this. As a Mets fan, I’m fairly neutral on it (I didn’t have very high hopes, although I did wanna see him beat someone up at some point) but I can’t imagine he’d get a better contract anywhere, and he was almost guaranteed to see major league time at some point.
And now this means we’re almost definitely gonna get Valverde seeing time in the pen. sigh.
Braves should take a look.
I always thought he was decent when he was with the Rays. Wonder what happened with him. Eh I guess he got old. He was good in 2011 but not that great since
He got old.
I dont mean to complain, but with these spring training cuts it would be helpful to post their spring stats or even some general deductions.
” and his 92.6 mpg average”
I wish I got 92 miles to the gallon..