Mets Cut Carter, Figueroa; Keep Mejia, Catalanotto

After tonights 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mets informed Kiko Calero, Nelson Figueroa, Chris Carter, Bobby Parnell, Russ Adams and Elmer Dessens they will not be on the 25-man roster.

While we expected Chris Carter and Kiko Calero to be cut in favor of Frank Catalanotto and Jenrry Mejia as I wrote earlier this evening, I fully expected Nelson Figueroa to make the team and was surprised to see him get cut. He will most likely refuse his assignment and play in Japan.

While discussing the decision to send Parnell down, Omar Minaya said the following,

“We like Bobby Parnell a lot. I think sometimes you’re going to have situations where you just need to go work on a certain pitch. You need to work on something…. Bobby, though he throws velocity, we want to see some of his off-speed stuff get better.”

In addition to Mejia, Ruben Tejada, Fernando Nieve, Sean Green and both Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi have made the team.

After emerging from the clubhouse, Jerry Manuel had this to say regarding Chris Carter.

“I don’t know if anybody gave a better effort this spring than Chris Carter. He became somewhat of a favorite in the clubhouse. It’s always real tough to let those kind of guys go. They do everything you ask them to do and they do it 110 percent. That’s what’s great about him. Whatever you ask him to play, drills, anything, he’s 110 percent. It was tough, very tough.”

Brian Costa writes that pitcher Raul Valdez and catcher Omir Santos are technically still in camp but are expected to be cut before the Mets head north Saturday night.

A little shocked that Sean Green made the team. Maybe it’s true what they say, spring stats dont mean anything. 

On another note, Mike Pelfrey pitched tonight and delivered a spectacular performance. In six innings he allowed just 4 hits, no walks and no earned runs while striking out four batters. It was his best start of the spring.