In a move that has been speculated the entire Spring, the Mets cut out Sanchez today from their 2009 roster, and released him. We are all familiar with the story. The 29 year old Sanchez had a great year in 2005 and then the Mets brought him over for 2006 where he was a key part of the Mets bullpen, until he got into a taxicab accident midway through the season and the velocity just never came back. He made appearances and pitched in 2008 about the same amount as he did in 2006 and his numbers looked very similar, except for the bottom line ERA where he was getting lit up. Here are his numbers from the last few seasons:
2005- (4-7), 79G, 82.0 IP, 36 BB, 71 K, 3.73 ERA
2006- (5-1), 49G, 55.1 IP, 24 BB, 44 K, 2.80 ERA
2008- (5-1), 66G, 58.1 IP, 23 BB, 44 K, 4.32 ERA
2009 (Spring)- 5G, 5.0 IP, 6 BB, 4 K, 3.60 ERA
This move, basically came down to several factors the Mets had to consider. They save aprx 1.5 million by releasing him. Also, Stokes is out of options, and they would like to keep him around, at least to have be a long man in the pen. Finally, as pitching goes for the Mets, there are a bunch of new guys in camp that can put up similar numbers that Sanchez will this year and for much cheaper (Or the other way to look at it, his job was supposed to be setup, Putz has that, and the Mets need specialists to fill the other pen spots, so as nice as it would be to have Sanchez around, it is a bit like carrying extra weight). I am a little sad to see Sanchez go, I always liked his passion out there. I've heard that the Nationals like him and I am sure he will be picked up by someone because he does have upside, he is just not right for the Mets right now.
