Just-acquired lefty John Lamb will make his big league debut for the Reds tomorrow, the club announced. Lamb, 25, becomes the first player acquired in the Johnny Cueto deal to see the Cincinnati roster. The former top-100 prospect struggled to regain his form after Tommy John surgery, but had a sturdy 2014 and has been excellent thus far in 2015. Over 111 1/3 innings at Triple-A this year, he owns a 2.67 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9.
- The Giants have topped the luxury tax limits with their 2015 payroll, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. San Francisco is nevertheless willing to tack on obligations to add Chase Utley (or, presumably, another option). Indeed, the team had already gone over $189MM when it dealt for Mike Leake. Because it’s the first time the Giants have cracked that ceiling, they will owe only a 17.5% tax on the overage, and are expected to avoid any such payments next season.
- With his move to the DL, Giants outfielder Nori Aoki no longer has a realistic chance to reach 550 plate appearances, Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News notes on Twitter. That means that his $5.5MM option for next season will lie solely in the club’s hands. It would’ve become a mutual option had Aoki reached the threshold.
- Cardinals righty Alex Reyes has opened a lot of eyes inside and outside the organization, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The 20-year-old just earned a promotion to Double-A after dominating the High-A level with a huge fastball and excellent breaking ball, putting up a 2.26 ERA with 13.6 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 63 2/3 innings. GM John Mozeliak said that he has actually not received many trade inquiries on Reyes, since other clubs seem to realize that the organization has no intentions of moving the youngster. Reyes shot up to 20th on MLB.com’s most recent prospect rankings based on his huge upside and encouraging results, though he still has plenty of polishing ahead of him.
Aoki would have most likely declined his half of the mutual option in search of more money. This DL stint could be a blessing in disguise for the Giants, if they were planning on keeping him on the team and don’t lose too many games over the next week due to Maxwell not being able to hit.
I dunno. One would think he would have had an easy time getting more money the last time, yet didn’t.
Here is my take for it and him. Alejandro De Aza will be a FA also after the season and is sort of the same, as in inferior in most ways, but has most of the same tools.. A quality guy to have as a 4th OF, but one you don’t want starting every day, where Aoki could realistically step into a MLB lineup for a period of time and not hurt a team. De Aza made 5m in 2015 already, Aoki only made 4. I’d take Aoki any day over him.
How much can he get? As much? Maybe more? Less? Market is weird.
I would think he could probably get more than a one year guarantee this time around. That’s what I should have said to begin with.