The Indians announced this afternoon that they’ve released right-hander Tommy Hunter. The veteran reliever hasn’t pitched in the Majors since mid-July due to the fact that he was placed on the disabled list with a non-displaced fracture in his back that he sustained in a fall at his home over the All-Star break (as Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported at the time).
Hunter, 30, inked a one-year, $2MM pact with the Indians as a free agent this offseason and opened the season on the disabled list as he recovered from sports hernia surgery. He pitched well upon activation, however, logging a 3.74 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 in 21 2/3 innings out of the Cleveland bullpen. After struggling as a starter for much of his early career with the Rangers and Orioles, Hunter carved out a nice role for himself as a reliever, posting a 3.26 ERA in 207 1/3 innings from 2013-15.
Hunter had already begun a minor league rehab assignment, pitching six innings with Triple-A Columbus over the past couple of weeks and appearing in a game as recently as yesterday, so there’s reason to believe that he could still pitch at the big league level this season despite his recent injury troubles.
Angels, get ready to dumpster dive.
These jokes are getting old about the Angels. While they did make some pretty lousy offseason acquisitions (as did the Diamondbacks), and did sign Tim Lincecum well beyond his prime, the Angels have not made too many horrible moves since throwing in the towel.
Nah. The Angels jokes are still good until either Arte Moreno stops signing guys past their prime and/or until all those bad contracts of his end.
While the Pujols and Hamilton deal certainly seemed bad at the time, no one could predict that C.J. Wilson would be as bad and injured as he has been. Miguel Cabrera could easily end up as bad of a contract as Pujols received, but only time will tell. It’s easy to judge teams after the signings, and the Angels really did trade their entire farm system away (as did the Diamondbacks) to improve their team and failed, but let’s cut these baseball teams some slack. They’re not the Red Sox or Dodgers to where they can just sign whoever they want, and if they fail, oh well. Teams have to make these kinds of risks in order to win.
Um, Tommy Hunter is a good reliever. A contender might grab him for the last month. A smart team would sign him to a 2 year deal asap.
Rangers need more arms
I wouldn’t object to a minor league deal and let him rehab.
Well the Indians only had to wait 1 more day to sign Hunter cheap & then they could of used the 60-day DL for Dylan Baker (For some odd reason didn’t want to give him service time). Of course the Indians lost Catcher/SS/2B Tony Wolters to the Rockies after being DFA’d.. Waste of a signing Hunter was, & yes McAllister is worse then Hunter.. However McAllister is CHEAP & controllable for 2 seasons, doesn’t matter that he only throws 1 quality pitch (McAllister’s attempt in developing a curveball is a hilarious epic fail at this point). Meanwhile Wolters is hitting a respectable .240-260ish average in his rookie year, while R. Perez is at .100. Still say should of flipped R. Perez & E. Gonzalez for a veteran Catcher in the offseason.. Now no one will want Gonzalez (24), so he will become the next Jesus Aguilar blocked By Kipnis/Lindor/ & now J Ram. at 3B.
So true about McAllister. Abysmal. The Indians were better off with Joba over McAllister.
RED SOX
His next stop…. Garbage Dumpsite called Anaheim Stadium ….
Braves need relief help so Hunter would be worth “taking a flier on”, as a low risk investment if he is healthy now.
Hunter was a fan favorite in baltimore and we have a few injuries. I could see them giving him a shot if healthy
Maybe my Rays will take a flyer on him……… We need all the bullpen help we can get to make a late playoff push!!!