The Indians announced today that outfielder Robbie Grossman has opted out of his minor league contract and been granted his release, thereby making him a free agent (Twitter link).
Grossman, 26, signed a minor league pact with Cleveland this winter but didn’t make the club out of Spring Training despite the club’s thin outfield mix (though he slashed a rather solid .231/.348/.385 with three homers). The former Astro has hit quite well in the early stages of the 2016 campaign, batting .256/.370/.453 with six homers and three steals for Triple-A Columbus. He was once looked at as a possible building block in Houston, who acquired him alongside Rudy Owens and Colton Cain in the 2012 trade that sent Wandy Rodriguez to the Pirates. However, after a strong .268/.332/.370 debut as a 23-year-old in 2013, Grossman went on to bat just .222/.323/.323 in the two subsequent seasons. Lackluster performance in 2014-15 notwithstanding, the switch-hitting Grossman should draw some interest as a free agent given his relative youth, solid Triple-A production and experience in the Majors.
He joins a growing list of players that have exercised mid-May opt-out clauses, joining veteran lefties Brian Duensing and David Huff — each of whom opted out of their respective contracts with the Royals on Sunday — and catcher Michael McKenry, who opted out of a minor league pact with the Rangers on Saturday.
Since when is .231/.348/.385 “rather solid?” It looks rather mediocre to me, especially for an outfielder.
It is, and Grossman is, rather mediocre.
Since the league-average OBP dipped to .317 and the league-average SLG dipped to .406 across the past two seasons.
I was thinking the exact same thing
Padres should sign him. With upton jankowski grossman and jay theyd had a very solid defensive outfield. Like when they had maybin venable and denorfia. May not hit much but bench player to come in for defense makes sense. That way they can send jankowski down to get more seasoning, which makes more sense.