The Phillies Released ‘A Great Ambassador for Baseball'

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This is how Charlie Manuel described – and we can only presume will choose to remember – Chad Durbin after the Phillies dumped the 35-year-old reliever on Friday. Lord knows we’d all like to forget about the 9.00 ERA he is sporting this season.

Adding and subtracting players is almost universally about improving the team, whether it’s an immediate fix or part of broader, long-term blueprint. Seldom do coaches and executives come right out and say the guy they just got rid of flat out stinks though, which is what Charlie more or less did with Durbin.

“Chad was a professional, a great ambassador for baseball,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “But it got down to we wanted to do something with our pitching. We wanted to try to get better.”

We wanted to get better, SO GET LOST ALREADY, CHAD. Don’t call, don’t write, just go get a job at the United Nations or something.

Frankly, Durbin lasted longer than I thought he would in his second stint in Philadelphia. His miserable spring carried over into the beginning of April, and before long putting him into games became symbolic of waving the white surrender flag. Of Durbin’s 16 appearances in 2013, the Phillies lost 13 of them.

It didn’t help matters that he allowed runs to score – inherited or otherwise – in 14 of them.

The team recalled Joe Savery to replace Durbin. I dare him to do worse.

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