The Royals have announced that they’ve signed corner outfielder Travis Snider to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Snider is a client of CAA Sports.
Snider, who will turn 28 this week, batted .232/.313/.350 in 265 plate appearances split between the Orioles and Pirates in 2015. The Orioles sent two pitching prospects to Pittsburgh for Snider he performed well in a part-time role in 2014, but he was a disappointment in Baltimore and was ultimately released. He re-signed with the Bucs and rejoined the team when rosters expanded in September.
Snider, the 14th overall pick in the 2006 draft, was once a top prospect in the Blue Jays organization but has struggled to string together productive seasons in the Majors. He has, however, done just enough with the bat (with a career .244/.311/.399 line) to potentially provide an organization with a good left-handed bench option. Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan tweets that Snider is one of the higher-upside players to sign a minor league deal this offseason, and given Snider’s youth and pedigree, it’s hard to argue that point. It’s worth noting, however, that there will be limited time for the Royals to realize that upside, since Snider can become a free agent again with about a half a season more service time.
Good upside for a minor league signing – but the clock is ticking pretty quickly on Snider ever figuring it out at the ML level. Certainly nothing wrong with taking a look to see if he can contribute.
Even if Snider doesn’t ‘figure it out’, he’s still a pretty decent option as the 5th outfielder (ie. top minor league depth). That itself would constitute a pretty decent baseball career.
Let me rephrase myself.
Yes I agree with you that it is a good minor league signing.
Not a bad sign as the Royals hope he gets back to 2014 numbers when he had a 122 wRC+. popped 13 HR’s, his KO rate was down at 18.7 and he made contact 81% of his AB’s.
Looks like a KC kind of guy even as a platoon RF’er.
Then again – the guy already sitting there waiting for a platoon partner is LH – so ideally for the Royals the additional OF would be RH.
As a Toronto fan I remember him hitting a homer into an exit in the upper deck in Minnesota. It’s s shame he hasn’t harnessed his full potential so far.
If I remember right, he hit 2 absolute bombs that game. It really looked like he was destined to be a monster, but he just never figured it out. Probably the most disappointing Jays prospect in a long time.
Nah J.P Arencibia takes that cake by a long shot.
i enjoy baseball.