JANUARY 29: New York has placed Torres on outright waivers after being unable to strike a trade, Rubin reports.
JANUARY 22: The Mets have designated righty Carlos Torres for assignment, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com tweets. He’ll lose his roster spot to fellow reliever Antonio Bastardo.
Torres had already agreed to a $1.05MM arbitration salary, so any team claiming him would be obligated for that amount. If he is not traded or claimed, then New York would still owe him one-sixth ($175K) of that amount.
The 33-year-old had put together two straight solid seasons as a swingman and long reliever for the Mets, but ended 2015 with a 4.68 ERA over 57 2/3 frames. It’s worth noting, though, that Torres suffered from some ball-in-play (.326 BABIP) and sequencing (65.3% LOB%) misfortune, while his peripherals were otherwise fairly strong. He ended the year with 7.5 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 and a 48.3% groundball rate, leading ERA estimators to value him at a mid-3.00 level.
Certainly, it isn’t difficult to imagine another club deciding that’s enough of a track record to wager $1MM on. After all, similar background statistics supported 3.24 ERA over 183 1/3 frames over 2013-14. And Torres actually showed a slight velocity increase last year.
I don’t like this move. Torres is an effective long man and spot starter when healthy. I do think T.C. Over used him early in the season.
So who would you drop?
I generally liked Torres, but his inconsistency I feel is what leaves him off the roster, also the Mets now have much better relievers than him considering also that Bartolo will probably be in the pen when Wheeler comes back
Agreed. He was vastly underrated in 2013-14 IMO but was just too inconsistent this year
I think Verrett/healthy Montero is a better RH swingman for the Mets bullpen.
And I think guys like Goedell, Reed and Robles have passed him on the depth chart as RH one inning relievers.
Also my guess is that they will likely go to a six man for a significant stretch when Wheeler comes back. Assuming they aren’t way behind in the standings
Save the five young pitchers some bullets down the stretch and into the postseason.
It’s ok I’m sure the nats will come in for more mets sloppy seconds
A’s will sign him for 3/$30M deal lol
Typical Wilpon’s in slashing a man who was overused by TerryCollins and was a team player. Wow he was making $1,000,000 dollars. Just think what the Wilpon’s will do when they have to pay Matt Harvey a $300,000,000 contract? All the baby Mets pitchers will demand $250,000,000 and more on the Open Market. Do you think the Wilpon’s are going to pay any of them? Nope they’ll resign Carlos Torres for $500,000 and try to tell you he’s an innings eater who can replace Pick One of the Big Five. What a joke!
What should they have done? Petitioned MLB to have a 41 man roster?? They had to cut someone since they signed Bastardo. You’ll probably get upset when someone else gets cut to put Cespedes back on the roster.
Are you complaining that the team has improved? Really?
Would be a solid claim for the Indians if they have the opportunity. Perfect fit for the last spot in the bullpen.
Tigers still looking for bullpen/pitching depth? Could be a solid last move to round out a very productive off-season for Mr. Avila.
I thought the same thing. Would hope Avila at least touched base with them to try and make a deal. Now he will hit the wire and be picked up before Detroit gets a chance.
Ima mets fan and other mets fans kill me. He was expendable. The bp has gotten deeper. As has the 40 man. He ran out of spots.
Agreed that Torres was expendable. A team with this many arms does not need this mediocre at best mop up man, which is what he is now. .
Half of MLB teams could use this guy!! He’ll be on a new club tm I think he’d win a spot on the Jays roster even as he’s got better stats than their 6th or 7th man and for a million bucks he is an excellent depth for any one of the teams that made the playoffs last year or were right there on the doorstep… Some GM with a brain will scoop him up!!!!!
How long before the Dodgers sign this guy?
Another team will benefit from the Mets actually having depth in the BP, but they don’t have a roster spot for him. It would have been nice if they got ANYTHING for him bc I think he will get picked up by someone, but shedding the $ will have to be enough.