Mets Designate Miguel Batista for Assignment

Mets Designate Miguel Batista for Assignment

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Miguel Batista will no longer be a part of “the best team in baseball,” as the Mets designated him for assignment before this afternoon’s game.

Batista, 41, is 1-3 with a 4.82 ERA making five starts and appearing in 25 other games as a reliever. 

Batista last pitched Saturday, suffering the loss after lasting only three innings and surrendering four earned runs.

“It was very tough,” Mets manger Terry Collins said of the decision.  “Miguel’s done a great job here.  He’s a first-class guy and brings a lot to the party as far as his clubhouse presence, especially that Dominican presence with [Jordany] Valdespin and a couple young guys.  He’s been great helping those guys mature at this level and he’s done a good job.”

Batista’s presence in the clubhouse might be missed, but not his performance on the field.  Designating Batista for assignment does cause some more problems for the Mets.  They are now in need of another starter to pitch Thursday’s game in Arizona as that was Batista’s next scheduled start.

This will add fuel to the fire of Mets top prospect Matt Harvey being called up to make the start.  Harvey did struggle in his start for Triple-A Buffalo Saturday, but his manager said that Harvey was not in the game.  It seemed more that his head was in New York than Buffalo with the rampant rumors that he would be called up.

“Hopefully he clears [waivers] and decides to stay and goes down and pitches a little bit more,” Collins continued to say before the Mets took on the Dodgers Sunday afternoon.

Right-handed reliever Elvin Ramirez was called up from Triple-A Buffalo to replace Batista for the time being.