Over the last week, Ken Davidoff of The New York Post shared the news that reliever Sean Burnett had elected to retire. The well-traveled 36-year-old had inked a minor-league pact with the Syracuse Mets over the offseason.
Burnett had gotten off to a horrid start this year, allowing 11 earned runs in 6.1 frames. In his appearance on May 25th, which will go down as his final professional outing, Burnett allowed six hits and six runs in three innings.
Burnett began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he was considered a highly-regarded starting-pitching prospect, reaching as high as No.25 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list in 2003. After debuting in 2004, arm troubles prevented him from appearing in the majors for the following three seasons.
After being traded to the Washington Nationals, a deal which included former Met top prospect Lastings Milledge, Burnett emerged as one of the top relief options in the Majors. With the Nationals, he pitched to a 2.81 ERA and accumulated 71 holds over three seasons.
After a strong run of success, arm-related troubles plagued him for the rest of his career and after the 2014 season, the lefty was only able to pitch 5.2 innings in the Major-Leagues. Despite signing with several clubs in hopes of a recovery attempt, Burnett has finally decided to hang up his spikes.
In other minor league news, the Mets have announced that they have signed reliever Louis Coleman to a minor league deal.
Coleman, 33, spent 2018 with the Detroit Tigers, pitching to a 3.51 ERA, 4.58 FIP, and 4.89 xFIP. After he allowed four runs in 7.2 innings in spring training, the Tigers elected to cut him loose.
Coleman’s also pitched for the Kansas City Royals, where he hurled 152 relief appearances from 2011-2015, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who he threw 48 effective innings for in 2016. Coleman relies on his slider heavily, throwing it approximately 45% percent of the time.
Despite a career 4.1 BB/9 mark, his career number of 119 ERA+ hat he could emerge as a shrewd pick-up and he could wind up in the big league pen at some point this season.
