The Rays officially signed Brad Hawpe and assigned him to Class A, according to the team. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement. The Red Sox, Rangers and Padres also showed some interest in the former Rockie, who cleared waivers yesterday. The Rockies designated the 31-year-old for assignment after he posted a .255/.343/.432 line in 300 plate appearances.
Hawpe can play first base, though he has spent most of his career in right field. The Rays probably won't have to use Hawpe on defense, since Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist have the outfield covered. If the Rays wait until September to call on Hawpe, they won't have to make any cuts, so Dan Johnson's job appears safe for now.
Hawpe and Joyce have a history of hitting right-handers better than they hit lefties, so Aybar should still see playing time against southpaws.
Even if he is completely unable to return to his prior form and only maintains his 2009 slash line, he’s already the best DH they’ve had all year. If he bounces back even modestly, they’ve really pulled a rabbit out of a hat without having had to jump into the Manny quagmire. Win either way.
Not a rays fan, but I like this move for them…Adds another decent threat to their lineup…Anytime you avoid manny at this stage in his career it’s a plus (with respect to mannys prior greatness)
Good moves for the Rays, but they need to put Zobrist back at 2nd, let Matt Joyce be the full time right fielder, and use Hawpe to DH/give Pena days off at first.
Nie. So they released Pat Burrell and they just signed Pat Burrell.
Maybe. But he isn’t costing them $9 million.
Pat Burrell still is though.
You blew past my point. He’s a non expensive Pat Burrell. He’ll cost them about 100k for the pro rated portion of this year and the 500k buyout. Less risk than the 2/$18m deal Burrell got.
2/$16
No I wasn’t saying you were wrong. Just that I think it’s funny that now they’re paying a non-expensive Pat Burrell to essentially take the place of the expensive Pat Burrell they’re still paying.
Brad Hawpe is a better all-around hitter than Pat Burrell.
In terms of fielding, yeah, pretty true.
check out their stats for the year. Eerily similar, but Burrell has had more power this year (and that’s with Hawpe playing in Coors).
Admittedly, Burrell was doing quite a lot worse before moving to San Francisco. Don’t know if that’s because he wasn’t comfortable DHing or if the AL is just not the place for him…
I meant in general. Burrell has the power, but Hawpe can get hits consistently.
Burrell just works better in the NL. /shrug
Burrell has said that he doesn’t like being a DH. He was a first baseman in the minor leagues, and I wonder if someone could reteach him to play third. It would solve the whole Pat-Burrell-has-no-outfield-range problem.
Whatever happened to Hank Blalock after the Rays released him? he would have been more use as a DH than this guy.
Yeah, Hank and his sub .300 OBP
Yay
Hawpe is a big upgrade over Burrell, Blalock, and Johnson. Very nice pickup by Andrew Friedman. Shrewd move that will payoff for this team down the stretch
Nice move for the Rays…I bet they would have wanted Damon over him though to be their DH….If they were able to get someone like Dunn, they would have been the AL Champs (no doubt).
This is a great move by the Rays, if only because they got someone NOT named Manny Ramirez. They’ll pay the league minimum for Hawpe, who can play the outfield or first, carries no drama/baggage, and provides a potential lefty power bat and can walk. I do, however, hope Matt Joyce continues to play every day.
solid low cost, potential high return short-term investment ….. if Rocco continues to do well on his current stint we’ll have added solid LH and RH bats to the lineup
Class A?
No kidding… Class A? He’s not coming off an injury, is he?
I suspect that he’s doing something similar to Roger Clemens, except Hawpe isn’t requesting millions, isn’t on steroids, or a douchebag.
and probably not going to federal prison
Rays are kind of used to criminals.. They drafted and tolerated Elijah Dukes during many of his escapades.
he’s not hurt (though his ribs may be sore from an injury early in the year) i’m sure he’s just there for a couple of days until call ups so that he gets some ABs without disrupting the AA and AAA rosters.
Didn’t realize Hawpe had such a respectable slash line.
That .343 OBP is good for cheap. Same with that slugging.
So his average is down, he’s still being good. Can’t believe no one wanted him.
I agree. .343/.432 are both roughly average for a major league player. He must either be really, really bad in the field or a terrible clubhouse presence for the Rockies to release him…
Rays needed a RH bat with some pop and production(especially at the DH spot). They’ve gone through Burrell, have had lefty after lefty brought in, Dan Johnson, Blaylock, used Aybar, Joyce with varying success but Friedman still doesn’t get it.
So he’ll roll the dice with Rocco Baldelli.. Good Luck.