Infielder Hanser Alberto is on the move once again, as the Orioles announced Friday that he’s been claimed off waivers by the Giants. In a corresponding move, the Giants announced that they’ve designated right-hander Jake Barrett for assignment.
San Francisco will be the fourth organization for Alberto this offseason, as the versatile 26-year-old has gone from the Rangers to the Yankees to the Orioles via the waiver circuit. Baltimore designated him for assignment earlier this week upon claiming lefty Josh Osich off waivers from the Giants. In some respects, the pair of move effectively amounts to a trade of the two assets.
Alberto, who has experience at second base, shortstop and third base, is a .309/.330/.438 hitter in 1000 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s never managed to carry that production over to the MLB level, however, as evidenced by a meek .192/.210/.231 slash through 192 MLB plate appearances (all coming with the Rangers).
Barrett was only acquired by the Giants earlier this month. New president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has already shown early in his tenure that he’ll carry some of the trends that have been characteristic of the Dodgers over to his new club. Namely, he’s been unafraid to continually shuffle players in and out of the final spot on the Giants’ 40-man roster, regularly claiming players who’ve been designated for assignment only to try to pass them through waivers once again. In the case of outfielder John Andreoli, that worked out nicely, and San Francisco will seemingly hope that a similar situation plays out with Barrett.
The 27-year-old Barrett has a career 4.05 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 1.35 HR/9 and a 44.2 percent ground-ball rate in 93 1/3 MLB innings — all coming with the Diamondbacks. He’s struggled since turning in an strong rookie season back in 2016, but he did average better than 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched over 53 1/3 frames in Triple-A last year.
Poor Jake Barrett. Him and Oliver Drake should form a support group
No. There is no analogy here. Barrett’s only team up to the point where he was claimed by the Giants was Arizona. Him and Oliver Drake have had vastly different careers.
Never heard of either of those dudes.
He brings up Oliver Drake every other Minor League transaction.
I think Farhan got his head stuck in the dumpster and doesn’t know how to get out
At least it gives Gary and Larry something to talk about.
Two things:
1) Depth has never hurt a team.
2) If Zaidi can turn any of these guys into the next Chris Taylor or Max Muncy, why wouldn’t fans want him to give it a try. They haven’t even given anything up for these guys… it’s all reward at this point.
Ham is the best school ever for me too but I can make America more than just the men I didn’t have time to call them
Whoops my phone fell apart
My brain fell apart
Farhan is as good a dumpster diver as you’ll find. He puts the homeless here in San Francisco to shame.
And that is a pretty aggressive homeless population to have to compete with!
well that’s a downgrade by a mile
Diaper Talk
It must be hard on the minor league guys. Camps are open and they now have to move across the country, find new housing, and then try to make a team.
It’s easier when 26/27, single and a while life can be packed up in a couple suit cases.
Come on Giants fans. It was a good run and it is time to rebuild.
I think this is what a Giants rebuild looks like
Pretty much the only thing they can do in their current situation
M’s looking for BP depth, Should get him! Then it’d be Andreoli for Barrett in a round-about way! LOL
OK Farhan, I think that’s plenty of utility infielders now, let’s move on to bigger fish
It’s going to look like a rec volleyball game every inning when the Giants defense takes the field – every player moves over one position after each inning
Spring training in the Giants camp must look like Saturday morning Pony league tryouts
I don’t think Alberto makes it out of camp with SF unfortunately. based on the presence of Yangervis Solarte who is expected to play a large role. That said, I think he’s claimed again at some point. The Giants are 9th in the waiver order and I think Cleveland, Seattle, Arizona, St. Louis and San Diego could all be good landing spots. Plus, there are bound to be some injuries throughout the spring, so I think he’ll still be on an Opening Day roster somewhere.
Can he pitch or play in the outfield, though?
So far this is Farhan’s plan…neither of these guys will make the team, probably will pass through waivers, and then the Giants keep them in the organization. He’s already done it a few times and is adding some much needed depth to the system. Keep it going, but we might need 2 starting OF, so there’s that.
He couldn’t even crack the Texas line-up which was riddled with mediocre players.