SARASOTA -- On the first day of spring training workouts, the Reds released Josh Hancock. The pitcher came to camp 17 pounds over his requested reporting weight, and with so many pitchers already contending for valuable mound time, Jerry Narron decided to get rid of the 27-year-old right-hander.
"At the end of the year last year, the last day in St. Louis when I talked to these players, I told these guys to give themselves a chance to be successful," said Narron. "I said the only way you can do that is being committed, by working out this winter and coming to spring training in shape, taking seriously what you’re doing.
"I have no clue what Josh Hancock was doing. As far as I know, he might have been running a marathon all winter long. He may have been throwing off the mound. But he was 17 pounds over his requested reporting weight. Can he be a successful major league pitcher 17 pounds more than he’s asked to be? Maybe. But we looked at last year, and he was on the disabled list for 133 games, and just did not see the commitment that we wanted to see this winter. So we let him go the first day of spring training.
"I hope he has a great major league career. I hope this opens his eyes to exactly what he needs to be to be a great major league pitcher. But it goes back to what I just said – we just didn’t see the commitment, so we’re going to give him the opportunity to go somewhere else."
Asked if everyone else's physicals checked out OK, Narron kept going.
"I’m a guy that believes in treating everybody with respect and honesty, and everybody in that clubhouse I definitely will do that with," he said. "But I am not going to sit here and tell you I’ll treat everybody the same. I believe you earn the right to do different things in this game. There might be a player come in here tomorrow that’s 50 pounds overweight, but if he does, he better have had a real good year last year."
