The latest minor moves from around the baseball world…
- The Mets have outrighted Aaron Altherr to Triple-A, as per MLB.com’s official transactions page. Altherr was designated for assignment earlier this week, the third different time this season that Altherr has entered DFA limbo. This was the first time that Altherr’s designation, however, hadn’t resulted in a change of teams, after he went from the Phillies to the Giants, and then from San Francisco to New York on waiver claims. Now that Altherr seems to be settled at Triple-A for the time being, he can focus on getting his bat on track after posting just a .245 OPS over 42 big league plate appearances this season.
- The Lotte Giants of South Korea’s KBO League have released right-hander Jake Thompson and claimed righty Brock Dykxhoorn off waivers from the SK Wyverns. (Hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net) Thompson was a second-round draft pick for the Phillies in 2012 and was considered a top-100 prospect in all of baseball prior to both the 2015 and 2016 seasons, though he posted only a 4.87 ERA, 6.3 K/9, and 1.33 K/BB rate over 116 1/3 innings for the Phils from 2016-18. After a brief stint in Milwaukee’s farm system last year, Thompson signed with Lotte last winter and posted a 4.74 ERA over 62 2/3 frames for the KBO side. Dykxhoorn is also in his first year in South Korean baseball, after delivering a 4.37 ERA over 490 1/3 innings in the Astros’ minor league system after Houston made him a sixth-round pick in the 2014 draft.
Give Altherr regular playing time and he will show himself. The potential is there. He needs to go to a non-contender and get 4 ABs a day.
a non contender like the Giants and Mets ??
Didn’t Thompson get drafted by Texas? He came over in the Hamels trade.
He was drafted by Detroit….traded to TX with Corey Knebel…. traded to Philly with Jorge Alfaro, Alec Asher, Jerad Eickhoff, Matt Harrison and Nick Williams….purchased by Mil.
And it looks like he was doing solidly in the KBO aside from his high amount of runs allowed. He should’ve allowed less, even with an extra home run or two. SK was expecting more of Dykxhoorn but he’s been good aside from the lack of innings per start.
The NC Dinos will probably add him to replace a lackluster Eddie Butler who has gotten a lot less strikeouts.
Loveyir KBO analysis Andrew and miss your podcast
Thompson was drafted by the Tigers, not the Phils.
Jake Thompson was part’ of the Cole Hamels trade. Shame it didn’t work out for him in Korea. Some team in the majors should bring him in on a minor league deal and get him back on track. Some times, players get yanked in the wrong direction (Thompson was yo yo’d with Philly from starter to reliever to starter to reliever. Not a smart thing for a starter.