The Athletics announced on Monday that they’ve designated catcher Dustin Garneau for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow catcher Bruce Maxwell, who has been reinstated from the restricted list. Josh Phegley was optioned to Triple-A Nashville to open an active roster spot for Maxwell’s return.
Maxwell had been on the restricted list over the weekend due to the fact that his ongoing legal issues prevented him from traveling out of the country for the Athletics’ series in Toronto. In essence, however, Garneau’s DFA is largely a corresponding move for yesterday’s waiver claim of reliever Carlos Ramirez (also from Toronto). Had the Jays been playing in another location, they’d likely have designated Garneau to facilitate the claim anyhow in more direct fashion.
[Related: Oakland Athletics depth chart]
The 30-year-old Garneau has had a rough start to the season in Nashville, batting just .206/.253/.338 over the life of 75 plate appearances. That’s a departure from an otherwise strong (albeit Pacific Coast League-aided) track record in Triple-A for the former Rockies farmhand, as Garneau boasts a career .263/.331/.499 slash line at the minors’ top level. In the Majors, however, he’s mustered a meager .192/.264/.320 batting line in 277 trips to the plate. The A’s will now have seven days to trade Garneau or place him on either outright or release waivers.
With Maxwell back on the roster, he’ll continue to serve as the primary backup to starter Jonathan Lucroy. Phegley will head back to Triple-A, where he’s hitting .224/.320/.412 in 100 plate appearances. He’d be next in line in the event of another absence for either of the Athletics’ current top two catchers.
question, why does the A’s continue to keep Font? He does not impress me one bit.
I don’t know either. He’s always been terrible at the major league level.
Most likely because they did this when they got Jesse Chavez and were able to turn him into a decent long reliever/spot starter in his Oakland tenure.
Yeah, but chavez has the natural ability of movement. I haven’t seen one pitch from Font that shows a dominant one pitch.
It’s a really bold move to keep Font on the roster
Is that a font related pun? Nice
Font is a lotto ticket that they are taking an L on but Buchter and Hendriks are on the DL and he’s only on mop up duty to prove himself…which he isn’t doing a good job of and will probably get canned when the pen is healthy again. Also the A’s in their infinite wisdom decided to stretch out Montas and Gossett, so they aren’t options.
Maxwell should be cut by now maybe after he shoots someone or cussed out someone
I’m not a huge Maxwell fan, but he didn’t shoot anyone. And why would someone get released for cussing someone out? I can’t imagine that has or will ever happened
“Maxwell had been on the restricted list over the weekend due to the fact that his ongoing legal issues prevented him from traveling out of the country for the Athletics’ series in Toronto.”
This sounds out of the ordinary. Did mlb do the As a favor by temporarily placing him on the restricted list, thus allowing them to use another player in his place? One could argue that Maxwell’s inability to cross the border is the As problem and mlb should not be helping them. Not sure I’ve seen the restricted list used this way before. Anyone?
You could say the entire situation is a major flaw…
Not any kind of special favor to the A’s. If I’m not mistaken, Pittsburgh assigned Jung Ho Kang to the restricted list during his “time away,” as I recall other teams doing over the years with foreign-born players who’ve missed Spring Training and early-season games for more generic “visa issues.”
Did the cops oppress Maxwell into pulling that gun on the delivery guy?
No but the amount of death threats he got from that may have made him temporarily crazy enough to do that.
Actions have these things called “causes” you know? Of course you don’t you’re a sports fan where reactionary is the rule.
So you’re saying Maxwell was “triggered”?
The fact that the Athletics still have Maxwell is what’s wrong with sports if you point a gun at someone for no reason, or assault someone you shouldn’t not be allowed to play in sports again.
“If you point a gun at someone for no reason, or assault someone you shouldn’t not be allowed to play in sports again.”
Yeah, but you can totally make a commercial where you point a gun at a child if you are in politics!
bustle.com/p/brian-kemps-gun-ad-has-the-georgia-re…
What is it like being a cuck?
I wish the A’s would call up Murphy sooner rather than later. If the guy is killing the ball at AA, I say it time to see what he can do. Kurt Suzuki completely bypassed AAA. Why not call up Murphy?
Why would they start his service clock? They have plenty of catching options.