Former Mets minor league pitcher Kevin Canelon has signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds.
The 23 year old left-handed pitcher was a free agent after having spent seven years in the Mets organization.
In 2010 at the age of 16, Canelon signed with the Mets as a free agent out of Venezuela. He would spend three years in the DSL before making his stateside debut in 2014. He has spent the last two years with full season affiliates.
The soft tossing lefty threw from a 3/4 arm slot, and he was arguably coming off his best year. With St. Lucie, he was 3-4 with a 2.97 ERA, 1.258 WHIP, 1.8 BB/9, and 8.9 K/9 over 10 starts and 22 relief appearances.
Good for him. Its a shame that the clock runs out on some of these kids when they’re still so young. At least in Cincy system, he’ll get a chance to continue moving up.
Nessim, we have discussed this before. The Mets keep their players in the Dominican League for too many years and it seems many of them are Rule 5 eligible while they are still in short season ball. I know Omar really accelerated the process, but Canelon should have had a cup of coffee at Las Vegas by now so that a proper evaluatiuon could be done without the clock ticking.
Yes, we’re in agreement about the Mets keeping kids in rookie leagues for too long. But thats not the [only] issue here. Lots and lots of American prospects are still in single-A at 23, but have several more years to go before reaching free agency because the Americans were signed at a later age.
The simple fact is that Canelon was performing well and was still a year below the league average and is still improving. There’s something wrong with a system that forces him into potentially being labeled ‘irrelevant’ before he’s peaked or stagnated.