Here are the day’s minor moves from around baseball…
- The Mets have signed infielder Josh Rodriguez to a minor league contract, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The 32-year-old Rodriguez, who briefly appeared in the Majors with the 2011 Pirates, will be returning for his third tour of duty with the Mets, having also spent the 2012-13 seasons and the 2015 season in their system. Rodriguez spent the 2016 campaign with the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate, hitting .263/.381/.420 with nine homers in 342 plate appearances. The versatile Rodriguez has more than 4,000 career innings at shortstop, more than 2300 at second base and nearly 2000 at third base. He’s also had more brief stints in the outfield and at first base. He’ll head to Triple-A Las Vegas this season.
- The Athletics have released first baseman Rangel Ravelo, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (via Twitter). The 24-year-old Ravelo was one of four players the A’s acquired in the trade that sent Jeff Samardzija to the ChiSox, but he showed very little at the plate in 2016 despite spending the year in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League. In 416 trips to the plate, Ravelo batted .262/.334/.395 with eight homers and 23 doubles. Ravelo lost his 40-man spot over the winter when Oakland signed Matt Joyce to a two-year contract.
- Eddy also tweets that the Dodgers have released 2013 first-rounder Chris Anderson. The right-hander had a strong run in the Class-A Midwest League after being selected 18th overall back in ’13, but he struggled in each of the next two seasons and was shifted to the bullpen last year. In 67 1/3 innings between the Dodgers’ Class-A Advanced and Double-A affiliates, Anderson logged a disappointing 4.81 ERA with a troubling 51-to-46 K/BB ratio. His control worsened in the Arizona Fall League, where he was rocked for 22 earned runs on 28 hits and 12 walks with 11 strikeouts in 16 2/3 frames.
- Another former top pick, White Sox outfielder Keenyn Walker (No. 47 overall in 2011), was also released recently, according to Eddy (Twitter link). Now 26 years of age, Walker never climbed beyond the Double-A level in parts of six seasons in the White Sox organization. Last year, he slashed .240/.330/.340 in 374 plate appearances with Double-A Birmingham, and he’s a career .206/.303/.283 hitter at that level.
TINSTAAP strikes again…
Dodgers releasing anderson is ok since bellinger was in that draft. Easy top 10 , possibly top 5 player in that draft
Is Rangel Ravelo genuinely much worse than most of the players who made the A’s team? Why release him?
He couldn’t even make the A’s top 50 prospect. Don’t worry the Texas Rangers will pick him up like all the A’s cast offs.
While that’s certainly possible, calling him easily a top 10 player in that draft is a bit premature. He’s not yet done anything at the major-league level, and while he’d go top 10 in a redraft today for sure, it’s still to early to make any definitive statements on his legacy
Walker? Of course! Yet another “toolsy” athlete picked by the Sox.
There we go Oakland….make a trade and then dump them off…brilliant move! Here’s an idea….trade for someone you actually want to keep or get a better scouting department….still bitter about the Addison Russel trade….that worked out well for the A’s…because Semian is soooooo much better