The Indians have claimed corner infielder/outfielder Richie Shaffer off waivers from the Reds, per a club announcement. Presumably, he lost his roster spot in Cincinnati to clear space for the signing of righty Scott Feldman. Cleveland designated first baseman Jesus Aguilar to free its own 40-man spot for the claim.
Shaffer has made the rounds this winter, at least on paper. He entered the offseason with the Rays before bouncing to the Mariners, moving to the Phillies and then to the Reds before landing with Cleveland.
As ever, that sort of movement reflects the fact that there’s plenty of interest in the 25-year-old, but also questions about just what kind of contributions he’ll make in the near term in the majors. He owns a .213/.310/.410 batting line in his 142 MLB plate appearances, all of which came over the last two years in Tampa Bay. But the righty hitter owns a solid .243/.338/.445 slash with thirty long balls over 778 total Triple-A plate appearances.
The 26-year-old Aguilar hasn’t hit much in scattered MLB time over the past three years, and has burned through his options in the process. But he, too, has shown more in the upper minors. In his 1,647 trips to the plate at Triple-A, the right-handed-hitting Venezuelan carries a .271/.346/.472 batting line and has swatted 68 home runs.
Yesssss
How did he fall to the Cleveland. Great pick up for them. Hopefully he can figure it out there
Does he have options remaining?
No, that is why he is bouncing around. Very unlikely to make any teams 25 man.
Incorrect, Shaffer can still be optioned. His contract wasn’t purchased until late 2015, and he spent less than 20 days on assignment that year so he didn’t burn his first option year until 2016.
Possible utility player?
Great pick up lol. Kid couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn
Weiters was also mentioned in rumors
Yes! Aguilar was dead weight on the 40 man, now Adams & Crockett need to be DFA’d. Shaffer is solid pick-up, backup 3B/1B w/ JRam backing up SS/2B is better then Michael Martinez.
somewhere, there should be a chart on .000/.000/.000 for the writers of rumors. on batting average .239 is unspectacular, yet .243 is solid?
I think the “solid” they speak of is in OBP and slugging, batting average isn’t the end all be all in the sabermetric world
You can’t just look at the average. That’s an empty stat without the obp/slugging
“Unspectacular” and “solid” could literally mean the same thing.
Saw it coming. Really hope Aguilar can get a better chance somewhere else… Indians never gave him a fair chance to prove himself.
I agree. His call-ups were always brief and largely insignificant. I think he could be impact if a team gave him more major league ABs.
They probably felt that Aguilar wouldn’t have a chance here since they had Santana and Edwin Encarnacion in front to him on the ML team. The will either keep Shaffer in the minors as a backup or he’ll make the team out of Spring Training as a utility guy. Francona loves players that can play multiple positions. Aguilar only had one position. Who knows, maybe they got a better scouting report on Shaffer from Guyer who was also on the Rays.