The Rangers have designated outfielder Austin Jackson for assignment, per a club announcement. He had been acquired recently from the Giants but never reported to his new team, at its request.
As Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News explained at the time, the swap that brought Jackson and reliever Cory Gearrin to Texas was designed from the outset as a prospect purchase. “Our primary motivation was acquiring Jason Bahr,” GM Jon Daniels said of the deal. The Giants, who are just barely south of the $197MM luxury tax threshold, were willing to give up the young hurler in order to clear over $5MM in salary from their books as part of their own deadline maneuvering.
Jackson, 31, struggled badly at the plate this year in San Francisco. Over 165 plate appearances, he carries a meager .242/.309/.295 batting line. That power outage came along with a 35.8% strikeout rate that is far higher than the ~20% level Jackson has maintained in recent seasons.
It’s still possible, of course, that the Rangers will try to line up a trade involving the veteran outfielder. He did have a productive 2017 campaign, leading the Giants to give him a two-year, $6MM contract over the winter. But it seems unlikely that there will be much of a market for his services at the moment. Certainly, no other teams will have interest in taking on the salary, if any are even willing to give him a MLB roster spot.
No, Cleveland. While Jackson’s availability at pro-rated league minimum (once he clears) is tempting, do you really want Jackson and Rajai Davis on the same roster? There are better options.
his availability @ the minimum would be if he is released. If he goes on minor league assignment, claimed or is traded it is at his full salary.
Based on his horrific performance so far this season and the fact his contract runs through 2019, it would be truly shocking if any team claimed him. The fact that TEX advised him not to report after the trade suggests they have no intention of retaining him in any fashion. I think the Rangers agreed to eat his contract to obtain Bahr from SF.
I feel like he really didn’t get a lot of playing time at SF. Not sure why, I suspect because Gorkys played way better than SF expected him to. That ballpark turns an average hitter into a terrible hitter.
when the season opened he was the starting CF most days – he got a lot of playing time but when he couldn’t get it going and gorkys heated up, it doesn’t make sense to keep him there
yeah but unless they release him rather than assigning him to AAA he is still at full salary. If they think that they can either trade or salvage him (eg stash him and include him a a trade with hamels, etc) it makes more sense to do it rather than to pay someone else to play him.
I have a feeling Indians trade for Adam Jones
I don’t. They have more pressing needs, like a real bullpen.
Miller coming back healthy is a big part of that. Indians have been linked to Machado and I don’t see it but if those teams are talking I can easily see them side stepping and working on other deals like Jones or Britton. As an outsider I feel like Indians should be playing a lot better than they are. Maybe they go on a run like last year. But I see them being active in the trade market.
Bingo. Part of me would love to see the Indians get Machado, but with the price they’d have to pay I’d rather they just pay more and get Brad Hand
You mean Pacman?
Yes the Tribe needs bullpen help but I’ll take Jones in Cleveland.
Cubs? Since they want an outfielder
It’s weird how the Cubs are looking for OF help, when they already have 5 OFs who are producing now (Schwarber, Happ, Almora, Heyward, and I’ll include Zobrist, even though he’s more of a utility guy now with Baez taking over 2nd).
they aren’t until they trade Happ which is likely to happen if they trade before the deadline.
I don’t see the Cubs trading Happ by the deadline.
i do, unless they don’t make any moves
Are they doing this to activate Martin Perez?????
hopefully Perez never gets recalled
no. they are doing this so they don’t have to take someone off the 25 man roster… Jackson was technically never added and this is a measure so they don’t have to add him. when Martin comes back against the O’s my guess is they send do Rodriguez.
they send down Rodriguez.
Phillies for not much more than future considerations?
WHAT?
You have a very dry sense of humor?
only if he’s younger than Bryce or Manny.
I do but that’s besides the point .
Funny stuff. 1 way to tell a player they stink and are not wanted.
I was thinking the same thing. One has to factor Jackson was never a HR hitter (I think he hit 16 HR once) AT&T Stadium is one of the hardest stadiums to hit HR’s.
I think someone will claim him.
2017: He had .318/.387/.482 with 7 HR in 318 PA.
Based on money he won’t be claimed. Traded maybe but I doubt an outright claim
Yankees shld pick him up wld be good addition
Jonathan Daniels, the Ranger GM, must be dreaming that he could unload Jackson to some other team. He has to be one of the worst GM’s in baseball.
Dude got a good prospect out of it. And if he can’t trade Jackson away for another prospect, he’ll simply release Jackson. JD has done nothing wrong with this series on moves.
I have never heard of him referred to as Jonathan so love to know how you know if that is his real name as I can only find him called Jon online. He also made it very clear that they were buying Bahr at the cost of Jackson and told him not to report. He also knows he has no trade value hence the release and not adding him and hoping to trade him. This is the measure put in place to outright release a player so there is no hope someone will pick him up, just the process the CBA agreed upon. Many ways to build a team and the Rangers have done a bad job at pitching, albeit we have some good ones lower in the minors, so this is a way to buy a prospect. It was actually pretty creative.
Only way Jackson is traded is if the Rangers eat the $. Even then, they get a lottery ticket at best. I wouldn’t be opposed to grabbing him for the league minimum over the next two years as a depth option. Nothing to lose for a team like KC
or they can package him at the deadline with someone more desirable to get rid of him
And they would be all over that as they are already planning to eat the contract. I think it was written that if he signs for league min then the Rangers would recoup about $700k so the prospect would have to be worth that much to them. So most likely they just let him walk.
Austin Jackson is underrated