The Pirates have claimed catcher Ramon Cabrera off waivers from the Tigers, Jason Beck of MLB.com reports on Twitter. Cabrera was placed on waivers after being designated for assignment to create 40-man space for the promotion of spot starter Buck Farmer, Beck adds.
The 24-year-old backstop came to Detroit from Pittsburgh in a winter swap for starter Andy Oliver. Now he’ll head back to the organization that signed him out of Venezuela. For the Tigers, the loss of a young player like Cabrera represents one of the somewhat under-appreciated downsides to being surprised with the need to add a player to the 40-man.
The Pirates should have a good handle on the player they are getting back, since he spent five years in their system. Cabrera was rated Detroit’s 27th-best prospect coming into the year by Baseball America, with the publication calling him a high-contact, low-power, low-speed offensive player who is still below average behind the dish. According to BA, his upside is to produce along the lines of Josh Thole. Over 431 plate appearances at the Double-A level this year, Cabrera owns a .277/.329/.358 triple-slash.
Welcome back Mr. Cabrera. I’m assuming Cabrera will be assigned to AAA Indy, so I wonder what this means for Tony Sanchez.
Ramon was excellent when he was here in Bradenton in 2011 – I’m ecstatic to see him back. Now if the Bucs could just fix the huge mistake they made trading away Brock Holt all would be well with the world!
Josh Harrison is better and Holt for Melancon is a still no brainer for the Bucs, albeit not as bad a trade for the BoSox as it originally looked
Stolmy Pimental was also a big part of that trade, and although he has not pitched as well as expected in 2014, he still could prove to be an excellent pitcher. The trade would still have to be considered a major win for Pirates.
The trade has broken down to Holt for Melancon and Stolmy. I think NH makes that trade today even. Not so certain Boston would though. A 3B without power has limited utility.
another huge move way to go neal
What are the pirates doing having our cake and eating it too?
huntington loves claiming catchers
Oliver is taking nicely to relief. On most teams a hot lefty at AAA would already be in the bigs. Good to have all this depth after all the bad years.
The Bucs need a Cabrera. We’re one of the few teams without one.
I love nutting!