The latest in minor moves from around the game…
- Cory Spangenberg, designated for assignment Tuesday by Milwaukee, cleared waivers and has been outrighted to AAA-San Antonio, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. It’s a bit of a surprise that Spangenberg wasn’t claimed, given his versatility and near-league-average offensive performance when afforded full-time play. The former tenth overall pick’s plate discipline continues to slide, however, and this year his strikeout rate had plummeted to a career-worst 33.9% at San Antonio. In 329 plate appearances for San Diego last season, the 28-year-old slashed .235/.298/.362 with a 32.4% strikeout rate, though his output in 2015 and ’17 for the team – his two previous seasons uninterrupted by injury – was far better. Spangenberg has MLB experience at nearly every non-catcher position on the diamond, so any prolonged hot streak should afford him another big-league opportunity in the near future.
- The Royals have requested unconditional release waivers on 1B Frank Schwindel, tweets Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. Schwindel, 26, was in his seventh season in the KC system but had plunged to unfortunate depths in ’19, slashing just .186/.237/.286 over 76 plate appearances in the surface-of-the-moon environs of the Pacific Coast League. Schwindel was designated for assignment by Kansas City on Tuesday.
Why just release Schwindel? He combined for 47 homers from 2017-18 in the minors. Seems a bit odd that they wouldnt keep him around as depth.
Because that’s not really impressive in the context of a 1b in the PCL?
He’s a known commodity to the Royals, and presumably they know enough to know that they can do better. Also, power numbers in the PCL mean about as much as power numbers in the Korean League, i.e. not much.
To me, guys like Spangenberg should be described as “versatile”, with the quotation marks included. Yes, he plays a lot of positions; he just doesn’t play any of them particularly well.
man, theyre really this low on Schwindel. i feel like they waited this long to promote him and then release him after a few bad weeks just as an excuse to get rid of him.
Why would they do that? He wasn’t going to see any playing time with Hosmer at 1B and O’Hearn played well after Duda got traded last year. IMO, Duda, Owings, or Peralta should be shown the door, but Frank didn’t hit once getting sent down. Someone needed to be cut to make room for Lopez.
Hosmer plays for the padres.