The Giants designated infielder Miguel Tejada for assignment, reports Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.
Tejada, 37, posted the worst offensive season of his career with a .239/.270/.326 line in 343 plate appearances. He split his time between shortstop and third base.
The Giants signed Tejada to a one-year, $6.5MM deal in December to be their starting shortstop after losing Juan Uribe to the Dodgers and missing out on other targets. From the beginning, that felt like a hefty price for a stopgap. The Giants are eating $1MM in salary by cutting Tejada now, for a total of $14.8MM given Aaron Rowand's dismissal.
When you’re one of the worst batters in baseball, maybe you shouldn’t complain about bunting.
Tejada gone and possibly Rowand as well? Hopefully they add in Zito and really shake things up.
Tejada’s .237 avg was 5th highest on team of active players, ha.
Good career. All-star SS with a great bat in his prime, but the end is near. Career high .280s AVG and 300+ HRs. Ranks very high in the SS ranks. He won’t be involved in HoF discussion because of controveries, but for what it was worth, he turned out to be perhaps the most offensive SSs out of the gen of offensive SS.
If he wants to, he might eek out a few more years as a role player off the bench, both as clubhouse statesman and part-time player a la Omar Vizquel. He’s considered to have been a very good teammate who makes the clubhouse loose for his teammates. Though to do so, the glove has generally got to be better. That said, he could also just call it a career.
I actually see him being a pretty solid hitting instructor or coach someday too. He’s one of those DR players who has a lot of pride in being an infectious gamer who has baseball in his blood. So you can imagine he might want to find a way to stay involved in baseball somehow.
He’s one of those DR players who has a lot of pride in being an infectious gamer…
Uh…as opposed to infectious gamers from the DR who do not take pride in that?
Otherwise, nice points there.
There’s players who see baseball as being a paycheck, a big payday, or a way to get out of poverty. There’s the saying that you need to “hit your way off the island.” Baseball is just a means to get there. Once they get that level of success, baseball is just a job. That doesn’t apply to just players from the DR, but the cultural context magnifies it differently there.
That said, not all players fit that description. I just think Miguel is one of them. He just seems to have baseball in his blood, and may not be one of those players who goes off later in life to enjoy their success in other ventures. I can imagine Tejada staying in baseball in some capacity. For instance, he’s also very supportive of baseball in the DR, you can imagine being an owner or coach in one of the Latin leagues.
Just my 2 cents.
Aside from questions of age (which certainly is an issue of concern), unless it is the primary topic of discussion, I question when fans make reference to a “non-American-born player” (if you will) by his cultural background rather than just by his skills and love of the game – which are what really count on the field – because that kind of thing is much more common than it should be. Economic factors may vary from one country/culture to the next, but in the end there are enough players who are in the business primarily for the money – from both the U.S. and abroad. There are also more than enough American-born players in all professional sports, who view the game as a way out of poverty, or just a way to get rich. Similarly, there is more than enough greed to go around the business of baseball, just as there are enough folks born right here who, while adequate on the field, do not demonstrate a fierce love of the game (as you mention in the case of Miguel Tejada). Yet they are seemingly exempt from the kind of [excessive] scrutiny that foreign players undergo ongoing basis.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there isn’t some truth to what you say above, because there is. However I am saying that what is going on “right here at home” is a consistent blind spot among a great many fans in this country, and such fans would do well to focus equal attention on the character and motives of “their own,” instead of assuming that they are above scrutiny. They might find more similarities between home-grown players and the foreign-born ones they single out, than they bargained for….because they never looked.
Time to call up Gary Brown and Brett Pill!
Sounds like Pill is coming up but the brass has said they won’t call up Brown this year since they want him to stay in SJ all year then head to Arizona.
Thank god..
I can’t be the only crazy one thinking to myself…
he’s got to be better than Julio Lugo.
Miguel Tejada is a better player than me too. That doesn’t mean they should hang onto him.
I’m obviously saying that he fills a hole in Atlanta…
I could not agree more. This fills Atlanta’s need on the left side of the infield and gives Gonzalez (aka Rally Killer) some time. Also, in the event Chip goes down, just more insurance with proven experience.
maybe it is time for tejeda to finally make his way to Boston? I know the Red Sox looked at him last year, 3 years ago before he went to Orioles and he is a possibly SS and 3B platoon.
Tejada, is time to play winter ball and thinking in retiring…
$100 says he will be a cardinal
Yep, his little hissy-fit when the Giants signed Cabrera was a pretty good sign this needed to happen.
Tejada didn’t get the job done (which happens, the Giants are at fault for signing him) but then crys when the Giants try and find someone who can. In hindsight, Tejada should have been released when Cabrera was signed.
cabrera is worse than tejada lol
Not talking about Cabrera, yet. (Though he be pretty bad.)
not even
trust me..you dont want tejada on ur team hes washed up and a 1/4 of the player he was when he won that mvp…good career but this should be the end of it.
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Bring him back to the Astros for league minimum. Bring Rowand for league min as well…
No more PEDs, Miggy’s stats go into a steep decline. His actions of the other day were inexcusable. Now, if he’d been hitting .275 with 15 HRs and 50 RBI, ok, sacrificing would have been an insult. But, Miggy, take a look at your hitting line; you simply are finished as a top player, especially in the post steroid era. It’s hard to believe he once knocked in over 150 runs in a season.
I hope no one ia surprised by this….