Here are today's minor moves and outright assignments from around the league…
- The Cubs granted outfielder Aaron Cunningham his release, the team announced. Cunningham, 27, signed a minor league deal with Chicago in November and had appeared in six Spring Training games for the Cubs. Cunningham last appeared in the majors with the Indians in 2012, and he has a career .628 OPS over 501 PA with Cleveland, San Diego and Oakland.
- The Tigers have released right-hander Luis Marte, tweets Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press. The 27-year-old posted a 2.77 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 32.9 percent ground-ball rate in 26 innings for Detroit from 2011-12. However, a great deal of that success was tied to an unsustainable 92.1 percent strand rate. Though Marte has a solid minor league track record — a 3.23 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 454 innings — he has just 56 career innings above Double-A and missed nearly all of 2013 due to shoulder surgery. Manager Brad Ausmus told Fenech that the team knew Marte wouldn't make the club and didn't have room for him in the minors.
Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing the Angels take a chance on MiLB deal for Marte. They have room in the minors for just about any pitcher at this point.
Really surprised here.
Marte was originally slated to make the team out of camp last year, but then he got injured. Figured he’d at least get a look til the end of Grapefruit season
I figured that as well. Maybe he just didn’t have it, like his velocity just fell off the table or something. I haven’t read anything thing like that though so I’m a little confused as to why there wasn’t room for him at Triple A.
The Cubs didn’t need a hitter like Cunningham anyway in their system.
There goes any WS chance!