Minor MLB Transactions: 2/21/16

Here are the latest minor moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…

• The Marlins released left-hander Troy Patton, the team announced.  Patton was a non-roster invite to Miami’s spring camp after signing a minor league deal with the club in December.  Patton’s 2015 season was limited to 30 1/3 innings for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, as he missed much of the year serving an 80-game suspension for testing positive for amphetamines.  The southpaw has a 3.25 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 3.14 K/BB rate over 169 career innings with the Astros, Orioles and Padres, though only 14 of those frames have come in the last two seasons.
• The Angels have hired Brendan Harris and Ben Francisco as pro scouts, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times reports (via Twitter).  The hirings would suggest that Harris and Francisco are retiring after lengthy professional careers that saw both men play for six different franchises and play their last big league games in 2013.  Harris spent eight seasons in the majors, with 390 of his 529 career games coming as a regular with the Rays and Twins from 2007-09.  The versatile Harris saw lots of time at shortstop, third base and second base over his career and he hit .256/.314/.381 over 1876 plate appearances with six different franchises.  Francisco saw regular action in the outfield with Cleveland and Philadelphia from 2007-2011 before bouncing around to four other clubs in his final two seasons.  Francisco hit .253/.323/.418 with 50 homers over 1771 Major League PA, though he may be best remembered in Philadelphia for his three-run homer that helped the Phillies win Game 3 of the 2011 NLDS against the Cardinals.  MLBTR congratulates Harris and Francisco on their fine careers and wishes them the best as they move into the scouting world.