Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- Phillies infielder Reid Brignac has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, according to the team’s transactions page. The former top prospect was designated for assignment this weekend to clear a spot on the roster for Freddy Galvis. Brignac, 28, batted .222/.300/.346 in 91 plate appearances with the Phillies this year.
- The Rangers have signed catcher J.R. Towles to a minor league deal, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The 30-year-old Towles was once seen as the potential catcher of the future for the Astros, but he never consistently put together success at the big league level, as evidenced by his .187/.267/.315 batting line. Towles has had quite a bit of Triple-A success, however, and he batted .292/.411/.519 in 67 games for the independent Atlantic League’s Bridgeport Bluefish in 2014. Texas needed some additional catching depth after dealing Geovany Soto to the A’s yesterday.
- Baseball America’s Matt Eddy has published his weekly minor league transactions roundup, and within the excellent recap, he notes that the Blue Jays have released right-hander Mickey Storey. The 28-year-old Storey has big league experience with both the Astros and the Jays and pitched to a 3.12 ERA with a 28-to-9 K/BB ratio in 26 innings across three minor league levels with Toronto this season.
Towles LOVES playing in the dirt. I watched him a lot in Round Rock. He’d smooth out the dirt around him after every hitter. Dude was borderline OCD. Well, good luck to him.
.222 for Brignac isn’t great but it a heck of a lot better than Galvis’ .038 batting average this season.
I’m usually the first one to downplay Freddy’s hit tool, but dude’s got 48 PAs. That’s not even enough for his swing % to stabilize.
Galvis had 220 plate appearances last season and hit .234. The previous season he had 200 had hit .226. He brings nothing offensively. The only reason he is back up is because he is one of Amaro’s favorites.
Galvis is up because he is a better defender at 2B than anybody else in the system, while also playing a mean 3B, a passable SS and a mediocre “anywhere with grass on it.” He also has a surprising amount of power for someone so small – certainly more than Cesar Hernandez, Reid Brignac or Jayson Nix – and thus brings a limited-but-potentially-useful skill set to the offensive side of the game as well.
Again, I’m not saying Galvis is a good hitter. He’s not. I was saying the same even when people were falling all over themselves to excuse some of his problems with the bat last year and the year before. However there are legitimate reasons to have a “can play any position but pitcher and catcher pretty well” player on the 25-man roster, especially if he does have one offensive tool to supplement.