2:45pm: Abreu has accepted the Triple-A assignment, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter).
10:36am: Bobby Abreu has cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Dodgers, ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick reports (Twitter links). The outfielder must decide by this afternoon whether to accept the minor league assignment, and he is leaning toward accepting it, Crasnick writes.
Though Abreu's power has disappeared, he continues to get on base at an above-average rate. The 38-year-old has posted a .246/.347/.340 batting line in 236 total plate appearances for the Angels and Dodgers this year. The 17-year MLB veteran earns a $9MM salary, but any team could sign him for a pro-rated portion of the MLB minimum if he elects free agency instead of accepting the minor league assignment.
Place your bets. Does Abreu want to stay in baseball enough to accept the sure thing of the minor league assignment (knowing he is likely to be called up again in a couple of weeks), or does he take a gamble on free agency? Or retire?
I feel like somebody would take a flier on him for, what would it be now, $200,000? I mean, he can still get on base and run surprisingly well.
We have Juan Uribe. He can still not get on base and he can’t run at all. Why would they keep Uribe and let go of Bobby who can at least pinch hit and see more than 2-3 pitches per at bat.
I mean, in choosing between those two it’s a depth issue, but really they couldn’t get better infield depth than Uribe?
Everybody who’s tired of hearing this question please raise their hands. I thought so, nearly everyone.
He´s going to retire
I think he takes the gamble.
It’s not really about the minor league assignment at this point and it’s not about a September call-up, he’s going to want to be on a 25-man roster by August 31st so that he has a chance to go to the playoffs. The Dodgers, by DFA’ing him, have basically told him the only way that’s going to happen with them is if somebody ends up injured. Might as well see if other contenders have an interest.
Either way though, I see this as his last major league season. Whether he finds another opportunity this year or not I don’t see him coming back next year.
Good point but he’s going to know if anyone is interested pretty soon, possibly quickly enough to decide whether to accept the assignment. Electing free agency is going to be really risky if nobody showed any interest off waivers or before the designation takes effect. The player should know by now whether he has a future anywhere but with the Dodgers.
That might be true in reality, though I would be surprised if it wasn’t considered tampering to be asking teams if they would sign you before you are actually a free agent (or perhaps more specifically, tampering would be them answering you). Not that that means anything regarding whether or not it happens.
It’s probably far-fetched for Abreu to see himself on a playoff roster at this point, but I guess I don’t see the risk of trying being very large. That might be biased by my assumption that he is going to retire after the season one way or another.
It might be considered tampering if a GM called a player’s agent while he was DFA (not sure), but it certainly would not have been when he was placed on waivers. I’m pretty sure, because of how the Dodgers signed him, that he would not have been any more expensive if someone had taken him on a waiver claim. Maybe the player doesn’t get to know that though. You’re probably right about retirement after this season.
Somebody will claim him
He’s not up for being “claimed” anymore. He is a free agent. That’s the point — he can stay with the Dodgers now, if he wants. They couldn’t assign him to Albuquerque if he’d been claimed. Now it’s too late for a team to do that.
He isn’t a free agent yet either. The choice for him now is designation or free agency.
Probably no shock to see him take the AAA demotion.
He just saw a superios Scotty Pods, traded and sent down and Pods hits (now) at least as good as Abreu, always was at least the defender. Pods plays all 3 OF positions and is a fast runner and base stealing threat.
Abreu really brings nothing to the game, except leadership qualities.
He wisely took the demotion. That AAA job could very well be his last gig.
Not to me, no. Though I can hardly imagine how it feels for a longtime veteran of his caliber to suddenly find himself among A-ball players again. I have to respect him for the desire to continue playing in spite of the demotion.
Still don’t understand why Abreu, with a solid OBP, was DFA’d, effectively for the Dodgers to bring Sands up to sit on the bench…
Abreu got the short end of the stick here. Uribe should have been DFA’d.
Uribe will be giving his #5 to Hanley by 6:30 tomorrow evening.
Update–unfortunately I am dead wrong because Sands sent down to make room for Kennedy, making Uribe a bad communicable disease. He’s really bad yet you can’t eradicate him.
Hanley was #2 in Miami.
He wants ANY single digit # in LA. Tommy Lasorda is probably not going to sign off on #2
He should’ve taken 8 from Donny before Vic got there.
Whitesox? As the 5th outfielder ?
Bobby Abreu’s game is gone. He would be a great manager one day. Abreu had a great baseball career.
Same could be said for Varitek, Cora.. They said it about Don Baylor also and he got stuck with poor teams and never lasted.
Speaking of Baylor.. Would like to see him back as a manager again on a team with talent..
Seriously? He was a malcontent collecting a paycheck. Always had to hit 3rd or he threw a tantrum, complained when he wasn’t getting playing time, was lackadaisical in the outfield – hardly sounds like manager material to me.
I could see Baltimore signing him.
A bit surprised that Abreu ACCEPTED the assignment. I see him being repurchased in September when rosters expand.
This is excellent news. The Dodgers keep sending superior players down to excuse Uribe’s presence but none got away yet and should be useful when rosters expand.
How quickly they forget!!! When Kemp went down the first time this year it was Bobby who stepped up and help keep these guys alive. Now they put him on the trash heap??? Albeit a fairly nice trash heap at nine million a year. Nonetheless, I wish they could have found a little better way of treating the guy. If we want a World Series banner I guess we all need to understand that there will be some casualties along the way.