The Rays have released first baseman Leslie Anderson so that he can pursue an opportunity to play in Asia, according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).
Tampa Bay signed Anderson after he defected from Cuba prior to the 2010 season, giving him a four-year deal worth $3.75MM. Anderson's bat never fully took off in the minor leagues, however, and he found himself designated for assignment prior to the 2011 campaign. In 1599 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, the now-31-year-old Anderson owns a .295/.348/.439 batting line.
His Triple A stats looks pretty good, wonder why he didn’t get a september callup at least
Wondering the same thing.
They were too busy letting Matt Joyce try to hit a middle schooler’s weight in 69 appearances than to see if a guy who’s proven he can hit AAA get a shot.
I’ve submitted your name to Andrew Friedman for a vacant Asst. General Manager position. Good luck.
Thanks, I graduate in February, would be a great opportunity for me :)
You mean the same Matt Joyce who is 3 years younger, has a higher career MLB OPS than Anderson does in the minors, is an above average baserunner and not terrible in the COF. That’s the guy you think should lose his roster spot to Anderson? Anderson is a former professional, who at 31 yo and in his third try at AAA, put up ok numbers as a utility player. Players like him are a dime a dozen. The only reason the Rays didn’t cut him earlier is they were already on the hook for his salary.
Who said anything about losing a roster spot?? Anderson has played well enough for 3 years in AAA to warrant at LEAST one call up. Perhaps you should look at what coaches normally do when one of their players is in a month long slump.
Anderson’s versatility as a utility player actually works against your argument. You’re telling me you couldn’t find ANY place to play him at all for an entire month? They sent up to the plate 7 batters who ALL hit under .212 in September a total of 357 times. 357 missed opportunities…
If they were already on the hook for his salary, as you say, then there is absolutely no harm in bringing him up, unless he gets a direct bonus for making it the Bigs. That OPS difference you mentioned is only .006, and before I even allow you to rebut, Joyce’s MLB OPS is only .031 lower than his minors OPS; not a large drop off there. And it’s not like OPS is the only thing that matters.
Again, it’s about not giving a deserved opportunity.
The International league is full of AAAA players like Anderson. Players like Chris Colabello, Luis Jimenez and Ivan De Jesus don’t get their shots because they’re not that good. If the Rays thought for a second that they could call up Anderson to help this year and not hurt the team moving forward, they would have immediately. You referenced Joyce’s AAA numbers, but he did that at 23 and 24. Not at age 31 in his fourth season at AAA. If Anderson had put these numbers up at age 28 or 29, in his first real taste of that level, I would be all for giving him a chance. If it takes him 4 years to finally put a decent season at age 31, he isn’t good enough to help us.
The real person who should have a gripe about not being called up is Vince Belnome. He had an even better season than Anderson, is still relatively young at 25 and has hit at just about every stop in the minors. The problem is, the Rays don’t like to sacrifice defense and it sounds like he is a bad defender pretty much everywhere.
How on earth is Anderson a AAAA player when he’s never been given a shot in the Majors?? AAAA designation is for a player who excels in AAA but can’t seem to put it together at the top level, players like Chris Davis (during his time in Texas) and Nelson Cruz before 2008.
I was wondering the same thing
That’s a question that Rays fans have asked over the many years that Anderson took up a roster spot in Durham. I’ve always just assumed that the Rays knew more about what was behind those numbers than I did. But the fact remains, to my knowledge, he never played a single ML inning in 4 years in the Rays organization. I’m sure there’s a reason why.
Hahaha…… Leslie.
What is funny about that?
Some people don’t realize that Leslie is actually a unisex name, and not a girl’s name.
I was more wondering about his last name, Anderson from Cuba wasn’t was I was expecting
Yeah Leslie is less peculiar than Leslie Anderson from Cuba.
Not as peculiar as all that. Folks move around a good deal in the Caribbean, and historically, many people from English speaking islands have relocated to Cuba – especially folks from the nearby island of Jamaica. So names like that are really not that uncommon.
Other Cubans: Teofilo Stevenson, Tony Taylor, Mike Lowell, Georg Stanford Brown.
A few others who come to mind are: pitcher, Aroldis Chapman, musician, Chico O’Farrill and singer, Malena Burke.
I thoughthe derseeved a callup. I thought they would have stronly considered him for the 1st base job, or a utility job at least. His winter ball stats were mammoth. Obviously Japanese scouts agreed too, because I just read last week that the Yomiuri Giants had made him an offer. I knew then that he would take it. I hept hoping they would give him a shot, he was def deserving for the past 2 years. Especially over Duncan & Bourgeois. Freidman said when he signed him that the most important thing was that he wanted to give him time to assimilate before bringing him up to the majors. He gave him more than enough time. I met him when he & his family 1st got to the US and of course didnt know any english, but was happy to be here. I’m sure he will do very well there, I just hate that I never got to see him in the majors in a TB uni.
Sorry for all the typos. My screen has a crack problem, and I can’t see what I’m typing.
Name sounds like he defected from the Union, not Cuba.
I thought the same thing when I met him, I thought he made it up at first, or changed it to something american sounding after he defected, but it is his name. He played with that name is Cuba, and on the Cuban team in the ’06 & ’09 WBC.
Well you know what they say Les is more.
2013/AAA
Tim Beckahm 460 AB – 127 H – 25 2B – 44 BB – 108 K – 276 BA – 342 OBP – 729 OPS
L. Anderson 431 AB – 126 H – 28 2B – 50 BB – 58 K – 292 BA – 372 OPB – 832 OPS
Seems like he deserved his September callup, pretty good stats to me!
I’m sure he was wondering where his call up was too, on several occasions. Especially when they added Kiermaier.
Well Kiermaier was only called up for defensive purposes. Jennings was hurt and the Rays wanted a viable backup CF for defensive replacement purposes.
Rays definately bit the bullet on this one.
Winter Ball Stats
166 AB – 54 H – 12 2B – 4 HR – 29 R – 27 RBI – 25 BB – 18 K – .325 BA – .411 OBP – .881 OBP – 2 SB – 4 IBB
Seriously people, Dan Johnson absolutely thrashed AAA for TB, and aside from a few historically clutch homeruns he was far from productive at the major league level.
Leslie wishes he was far from productive at the major league level too.
He sounds like he could be a viable back up for Teixeira on the Yankees considering Teixeira’s recent injury history. The Yankees might want to take a flyer on this one. However, with their overcrowded bench already likely including Vernon Wells, Ichiro, Brendan Ryan, and Eduardo Nunez it may be difficult for him to find a spot on the roster.
That line .295/.348/.439 line is not bad in the international league which is a much tougher hitters league than the PCL. Some hitters post better numbers when they jump to MLB after languishing too long in AAA. Part of it is the ball is livelier at the MLB level. Of course, a 1Bman has to hit pretty well but a lot of teams are getting awful production at DH so he might fit there.
.439 slugging percentage in AAA from a first basemen doesn’t usually warrant a call-up