The Mets claimed infielder Justin Turner off waivers from the Orioles, tweets Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. The O's had designated Turner for assignment on Friday to make room for Scott Moore. Connolly notes that Mets executive Wayne Krivsky drafted Turner as Reds GM back in '06.
Turner, 25, hit .300/.362/.388 in 441 Triple A plate appearances last year. He's failed to match that production in 95 PAs this year. Turner has mostly played second base this year, but he's also spent time at third base and shortstop.
Heading into the '09 season, Baseball America ranked Turner 27th among Orioles prospects after he came over in the Ramon Hernandez deal. BA wrote that Turner is a competitive "baseball rat" who has a shot at becoming a utility player in the bigs.
Hopefully this guy shows anything, something, just so I don’t have to see Alex Cora back in a Mets uniform next year, or the year after that.
Then hope that Reyes and Castillo are healthy and start a lot for the rest of this season because Cora’s 2011 option vests with 80 starts this season. 17 starts down, 63 to go for that to kick in.
You would hope that Omar and Jerry have that number in mind and will do anything they can to keep him below 80, but sadly we all know they don’t. Hopefully, the rumors that Murphy will play 2B in the near future are true. If he can at least field a little, I wouldn’t mind him there until Havens is ready in 2012. That’s a huge “if” though.
Methinks this is the depth move that will facilitate the oft-rumored Castillo trade to Colorado.
Nevermind, Matsui signed there yesterday.
…or somewhere else if Colorado doesn’t want him.