The Cardinals have designated outfielder Gary Brown for assignment, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports (via Twitter). The move opens up a 40-man roster spot for recently-promoted righty Mitch Harris.
St. Louis claimed Brown off waivers from the Giants earlier this month, and the 26-year-ols has a .352 OPS over 26 plate appearances at Triple-A Memphis. Brown was the 24th overall pick of the 2010 draft and a highly-touted prospect prior to the 2012 season; Baseball Prospectus (18th), Baseball America (38th) and MLB.com (48th) all had Brown ranked amongst the top 50 prospects in the sport. He didn’t produce much at the Triple-A level, however, though he did reach the majors for the first time last season in the form of a seven-game cup of coffee with the Giants.
According to the MLBTR DFA Tracker, Brown is one of five players currently in DFA limbo, along with Grant Balfour (Rays), Xavier Cedeno (Nationals), Kyle Drabek (White Sox) and Todd Redmond (Blue Jays).
I’d love to see MLBTR do a piece on Mitch Harris. He probably won’t last long on the Major League roster right now, but to serve in the Navy and come back and still play professional baseball is quite remarkable. Very excited to see him get his chance!
They guy’s gotten enough promotion. It’s a cool story, but it’s been told 20 times since spring..
I think MLB should really do something about this problem. If a team claims a player, they should be forced to stay on the 40 man roster for a set period of time or else be sent back to the original team. This one isn’t really as bad as the Dodgers claim of Ryan Dennick and subsequent outright 2 days later, but there should be at least a 60 day minimum stay on the 40 man roster. Claiming someone and then outrighting him just seems a bit shady to me even though it is within the rules at the moment.
So, kind of like the Rule 5 picks?
If you claim someone off waivers and you’re paying them, you can do whatever you see fit with them, whether it be at the big league level, or in the minors.
And that’s the way it should be.
And what if SF doesn’t want him, which would be indicated by the fact that they DFA’d him.
It doesn’t mean they didn’t want him. It meant they had to have a 40 man spot due to a big league injury and couldn’t promote Brown due to the “10 day, no promotions” rule at the start of the season. But if they decided they didn’t want him, then they could decline the option of reclaiming him and he could remain a Cardinal as an outright or another team that wanted to claim him to their 40 man roster.
I’d almost be surprised if the Braves don’t pick up Balfour. Assuming he’s placed on waivers or released.