Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.
- Veteran lefty Tom Gorzelanny has declined his outright assignment with the Indians and is now a free agent, the team has announced. The Indians designated Gorzelanny for assignment on Monday after he allowed seven runs in three innings for them. Gorzelanny, who turns 34 this week, has a career 4.40 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in parts of 12 seasons with the Pirates, Cubs, Nationals, Brewers and Tigers in addition to the Indians.
- The Cardinals have announced that they’ve allowed outfielder Carlos Peguero to depart for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. They will receive cash considerations in return. The 29-year-old Peguero has played with the Mariners, Royals, Rangers and Red Sox in parts of five big-league seasons, but has never stuck, accumulating just 319 career plate appearances. He’s shown big power in the minors, though, with 95 home runs and a .277/.346/.520 in the equivalent of about three full seasons at Triple-A.
- The Rays have signed reliever Casey Coleman to a minor league deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Coleman opted out of his deal with the Mariners last week after posting a 2.08 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 39 strong innings with Triple-A Tacoma.
- One of Coleman’s new Durham Bulls teammates is lefty Dana Eveland, who was designated for assignment this week. Via SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter), Eveland has accepted the Rays’ outright assignment. He posted an 8.55 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 6.8 BB/9 in 20 innings of relief with the Rays this season.
- The Pirates have outrighted catcher Jacob Stallings, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bill Brink tweets. The Bucs designated the defensive specialist for assignment last week. The 26-year-old has batted just .200/.235/.326 this season, but he received a brief callup because of a rash of injuries to Pirates catchers.
Could the Rays signing of Coleman be a indication that they will be moving some pitching after the All Star break?
No.
I do think they’ll move a pitcher or two, but I don’t think this move is indicative of that.
Glad to see Stallings get through waivers. After all the injuries this year, never hurts to have plenty of catching options in the minors.
> The Indians designated Gorzelanny for assignment on Monday after he allowed seven runs in three innings for them.
Not quite true. I was at that 17-1 game. Gorzelanny had been, essentially, a LOOGY for Cleveland, getting one out in five of his six previous outings, not facing more than three batters per game. He had not given up a single run!
But in the previous two games, Indian relievers had pitched an astonishing 21 innings (13 innings in a 19-inning game, then eight innings in a “bullpen game”). Gorzelanny entered Sunday’s game down 5-0 with an extraordinarily taxed bullpen behind him. He faced LHB Saunders….and walked him. He then faced two RHB, the second of which hit a three-run homer, making it 8-0. So Tito left G out there to take one for the team….and cut him the next day!
Gorzelanny didn’t allow anything… he was sacrificed!
He’s lucky to have not given up a run prior to his 7-run shellacking. That, in addition to waking 5 hitters in his last 1.1 innings, certainly didn’t help his case.