AL Notes: Chen, Hamilton, Athletics, Walters

Wei-Yin Chen’s start against the Yankees on Saturday was likely his last for the Orioles, Rich Dubroff of CSNmidatlantic.com notes. Chen is expected to depart via free agency. “I would be happy if I was given the chance to come back here,” says Chen. “But sometimes as a professional player, it’s inevitable that you have to change teams and adapt to a new environment. I don’t know where I will pitch next year, I just know I will do my best to pitch [in] each game.” Chen’s initial big-league contract, which covered the 2012-14 seasons, included a 2015 option, and ended up costing a total of about $16MM, was a success for the Orioles — Chen gave them more than 700 quality innings, posting an ERA+ at or better than league average in all four seasons. At age 30, he’s now in good position to cash in on the free agent market. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted in August, though, the qualifying offer the Orioles figure to extend could affect Chen’s value, particularly given the market’s strong group of pitchers. Here’s more from the American League.

• As part of their complex deal to acquire him in April, the Rangers control Josh Hamilton’s rights through 2017, with the Angels taking on most of his salary. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Rangers’ obligation going forward is extremely minimal — they’ll pay Hamilton nothing in 2016 and only $2MM in 2017. Hamilton has played a small role on the 2015 Rangers, batting .247/.287/.407 in 174 plate appearances.
• Billy Burns and Mark Canha both unexpectedly played key roles for the Athletics this year, John Hickey of Bay Area News Group writes. Burns thought he would spend most of the year with the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, while Canha thought he’d be with the Marlins’ Triple-A team in New Orleans. Instead, Burns started about three-quarters of Oakland’s games in center field and hit .295/.333/.394, also stealing 26 bases. Canha, meanwhile, headed to the A’s in the Rule 5 Draft and batted .249/.308/.413. Their emergences have been bright spots in what has otherwise been a lost year for the Athletics.
• The Indians have announced that infielder/outfielder Zach Walters had shoulder surgery on Friday to fix a labral tear. He’ll be out five to six months, and the team hopes he’ll be ready for the start of the 2016 season. The Indians acquired Walters for Asdrubal Cabrera in 2014 after a hot half-season at Triple-A Syracuse, but he hasn’t been able to maintain the power-hitting pace he set then, either in the minors or the big leagues. He spent most of this season with Triple-A Columbus, batting .249/.310/.416 in 379 plate appearances.