The Indians acquired pitcher Omar Aguilar from the Brewers, allowing Milwaukee to retain Rule 5 lefty Chuck Lofgren and send him to Triple A, reports Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Lofgren cleared waivers.
Aguilar, 25 later this month, posted a 4.72 ERA, 11.4 K/9, and 4.4 BB/9 in 55.3 relief innings split between High A and Double A in 2009 (he was demoted in June). He failed to crack Baseball America's top 30 Brewers prospects list this year, but ranked #21 heading into '09. A Tommy John survivor, Aguilar is a power arm with a mid-90s fastball and a setup man projection. Nice pickup by the Indians.
Lofgren, 24, last appeared in a Baseball America handbook when he ranked second among Indians prospects heading into '08. The lefty projected as a #3 starter at the time. Last year he posted a 4.15 ERA, 5.9 K/9, and 3.1 BB/9 in 141 innings split between Double A and Triple A. He was left unprotected in the '08 Rule 5 and went unclaimed, but the Brewers snagged him in the '09 draft.
With Bobby Cassevah sent back to the Angels yesterday and Armando Zerpa returned to the Red Sox, 14 of the 17 Rule 5 picks from the Major League phase still face unresolved situations.
Zerpa was sent back yesterday also, according to MLB.com.
Armando Zerpa was returned to the Red Sox.
link to sports.yahoo.com
How are the Brewers allowed to send Lofgren to the minors without subjecting him to waivers?
Part of this has to be a roster clearing move by the Brewers, like their waiving Iribarren. They now have 38 on the roster, and will likely need the spots for Edmonds and Treanor.
Lofgren has all his options left, as this is his first time on a 40 man roster.
Right, but I thought Rule 5 picks have to be placed on waivers when they are returned to their original clubs. Seems like this is a loophole that allows the Brewers to keep Lofgren and send him to the minors without giving other teams a shot to keep him on their 25 man roster.
If you give the team back another player that they want, the Rule 5 tag is removed.
Another way to think of it is like this: Brewers return Lofgren to Indians, then Lofgren gets traded to the Brewers for Aguilar. So the Brewers can send Lofgren down without losing him. This is essentially what happens. And he doesn’t need to go through waivers, like TheLaser said, because this is his first time on the 40 man and still has all his options.
That’s not true. You have to clear waivers before being offered back to the original team. Players are claimed all the time before being returned.
In any event, Hardicourt reports that Lofgren did indeed clear waivers, and was then traded back to the Brewers. So that clears things up.
My bad. I should’ve said optional waivers.
Oh yea, he made it through waivers. Rule 5s have to be put on waivers before they are offered back, but apparently nobody else wanted to keep him on their 25 man rosters, because that rule still applies even if the player is claimed.