Mets trade Elvin Ramirez to Angels for cash considerations

The Mets have traded relief pitcher Elvin Ramirez, who has long struggled with walks, to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for cash considerations. Our very own Jeffrey Paternostro sums it up perfectly.

If I was going to peg Elvin Ramirez's trade value, I would have come in right around "cash considerations."

— Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro) March 27, 2013

With the move, the Mets are down to 38 players on the 40-man roster, which means they're making room for the non-roster invitees who are likely to make the Opening Day roster. In short, Reese Havens lives to see another day — or at least a few more hours — in a Mets minor league uniform.

Here's what Jeff had to say about Ramirez this morning:

Much of what I wrote about Germen applies to Ramirez as well. Mets fans got a good look at Ramirez in 2012 so there's not much mystery here. He has a live arm, averaging 93.6 mph last year with the fastball per FanGraphs, but he struggles to locate it, or any other pitch really. Ramirez walked almost 20% of the batters he faced in the majors, and his minor league rates have not been much better. He has a pretty good change-up and in addition he'll show two different breaking balls. He flashed a decent-looking curve when I saw him in Binghamton last April, but hardly threw it at all in the majors. Like Germen, he projects as a roughly replacement level reliever, so I don't think there will be a ton of interest here either.