The Marlins have released Matt Treanor.
...Matt Treanor, the Marlins released the 32-year-old catcher on Thursday morning.
In the Marlins organization since 1997, Treanor was one of the clubhouse leaders. Respected for his defense and ability to work with pitchers, he was Florida's Opening Day catcher this past season.
But a left hip injury hampered him the second half of 2008. He appeared in 65 games and batted .238 with two home runs and 23 RBIs.
I'm not happy.
One of the joys to me about watching the game is seeing a good defensive catcher perform his craft. There is something special about having a catcher quietly move behind the plate, lookup and see if the hitter is trying to gain an advantage by checking the catcher's location and then blocking a ball in the dirt that by all rights should be headed back for the screen. Treanor did all of that and more. He was the go to guy in the clubhouse when the young players had questions about darn near anyhing. He was great with the fans and genuinely just loved playing the game.
There can be only two reasons for letting him go. 1) The organization doesn't feel his hip is healing properly and can't wait on him to rehab. Or 2) In the eyes of the organization, catcher is now a position that requires offensive production and if the good hitting player can sort of catch, that is good enough.
Hopefully Matt will catch on with another team, he has skills to bring. But sometime in the future, the Marlins organization should consider him for at least a position as a roving catcher instructor or maybe even a minor league manager. He would be good at either.
And if I wasn't bummed enough, I get to read this:
In a thin catcher's market, free agent Michael Barrett is stirring some interest from the Orioles, Astros, Blue Jays and Marlins.
Fabulous, which is Barrett going to bring to the table: the fact he is lousy at catching the ball, he can't throw out runners, fighting with the starting pitchers, or being injury prone. Perhaps, he will bring all four.
Lucky us.
I'm going to miss Treanor.