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| Gil Meche in action for Omaha (Photo: Eldon Lindsay/omahastormchasers.com) |
“If the Royals were going to give out that amount of years and dollars, why didn’t they just go after A.J. Burnett last season? In Meche, they get a sinkerballer who spent time in the minor leagues two years ago and has found minimal success at the big-league level.”
But Royals fans held their breath and hoped. There’s been a lot of that over the years.
Meche temporarily squashed any concerns when he took the mound on Opening Day 2007 and shut down the Red Sox, giving up just one run in 7.1 innings.
He went on to have a solid year in 2007 and followed it up with a solid 2008 campaign. But in Spring Training 2009, he began to experience back stiffness. That carried over to the regular season. By June, he was experiencing a dead arm – with his fastball was topping out at 88 mph. By mid-July he was on the DL with back spasms.
In August, he made a couple of rehab starts in Omaha. I was there for his second start and wrote about it here. He struggled with his control early on, but settled down and begin throwing strikes – especially early in the count. But something was wrong. His velocity, which was normally 93-94 mph, topped out on a couple of pitches at 92, but for most part stayed in the 90-91 mph range. After the game, I asked Omaha pitching coach Tom Burgmeier about Meche’s outing and about his lack of velocity.
“Overall his control was pretty good,” Burgmeier said. “The breaking ball and changeup were outstanding. He threw a lot of strikes with those. He struggled a little bit with his fastball command, but he’s also trying to make good pitches all the time instead of maybe just challenging the hitters. And he threw a long bullpen just the day before yesterday so he didn’t have the same velocity that he’d probably have in a normal instance. But all in all, it was pretty good.
“If he wanted to reach back and get it [93-94 mph], he could have done that. But he was trying to be smoother, throw more strikes, and he wasn’t missing terribly with his fastball. But obviously, you’d like to see him throw more strikes with his fastball. But his breaking stuff—he got that over the plate. His curve, slider, change up were very good.”
The thing is, he never really looked like the same pitcher after that.
He was diagnosed with bursitis in his right shoulder in 2010, and, after taking some time off, made another rehab start in Omaha. He stayed away from his curveball because it hurt his arm to throw it and New Orleans pounded him for 7 earned runs on 8 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings.
Knowing his career would probably be over if he opted for surgery, he chose the bullpen. He wanted to help the team win in whatever capacity he could, especially given the amount of money he was making. And that was admirable.
Then we got word today that Meche was retiring – walking away from the $12 million he was owed over the final year of his contract, saying:
“After a lot of thinking and prioritizing of issues in my life I have decided to retire from baseball. As a competitor my entire life this is the hardest decision that I’ve ever faced, but it’s not fair to me, my family or the Kansas City Royals that I attempt to pitch anymore. I came into this game as a starting pitcher and unfortunately my health, more accurately, my shoulder, has deteriorated to the point where surgery would be the only option and at this stage of my life I would prefer to call it a career rather than to attempt to pitch in relief for the final year of my contract.
“I can’t thank the Kansas City Royals and their fans enough for my four seasons there and if I have any regret, it’s that we weren’t able to accomplish on the field what the goal was when I signed there.”
It was probably the right move for a number of reasons. It frees up a lot of money for the Royals and Meche would probably not have stayed healthy long enough to help the Royals in 2011. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be missed. He was a classy guy to have around and when he was healthy, he was fun to watch.
