The Rockies have selected the contract of veteran first baseman Yonder Alonso from Triple-A, per a club announcement. In order to clear roster space, Colorado optioned right-hander Yency Almonte to Triple-A and designated right-hander Seunghwan Oh for assignment.
Oh recently underwent season-ending elbow surgery, so his subtraction from the 40-man roster is a formality. He’s in the final season of his contract and, in all likelihood, will be released in the coming days. Whether he opts for another season in the U.S. is entirely his call, but Oh recently turned 37 and reportedly contemplated returning to South Korea this past offseason.
The 32-year-old Alonso was released by the White Sox after a miserable half season in Chicago but quickly latched on with the Rockies. He’s raked at a .419/.500/.774 clip with two homers, three doubles and a triple in 38 plate appearances down in Albuquerque and will look to bounce back in hopes of securing a big league deal in free agency this winter. Alonso may only have batted .178/.275/.301 in 251 trips to the plate with the ChiSox, but he hit a combined .257/.340/.458 with the A’s, Mariners and Indians across the 2017-18 seasons.
I thought you couldn’t dfa injured players?
That’s what I thought.
If he is on the 25 man roster and DFA’d I think it’s ok. The Jays just activated and DFA’d Pompey too. If there is a problem here we’ll hear from the PLayer’s union for sure. I bet they could’ve made an agreement with the player too regarding a payout so they can continue rehabbing on their own as well. Hard to say.
You can as long as you pay their full contract. Since Oh is out for the year and his contract ends, they can just release him. It works exactly the same as putting him on the 60 day DL. It’s basically just a formality.
why not put Oh on the 60-day?
… 60 days and the season is almost over, if he had surgery for the elbow then who cares if his on the DL or released, it’s just paperwork at that point.
I had a similar question in a chat… it was in reference to Matt Moore. He is out for he year with his surgery. I asked why they don’t just release him. He’s a free agent at the end of the year. The response I got was “does it really matter?” I’m not sure… does it matter? Will he lose medical if he’s released? Does he lose service time? Does he have to attend team meetings? I don’t know.
He would definitely lose service time, but after you get to six years, service time is not really all that important anymore. It could affect your pension, but as much money as these guys make, a small difference in pension shouldn’t matter that much anyway.
wouldn’t affect the pension at this point. once you get to 4 years of service time, the max amount is locked in, so you get same payout whether you end up at 4 years, 1 day or 20 years of service time
That’s cold-hearted
Not really. My guess is he let the Rockies know he wanted to go back to Korea and they did this to expedite that process
So Alonso takes the spot of Mark Reynolds, ultimately.
They will still play Desmond over Yonder
Ian Desmond has the flexibility to play in the outfield including CF. This could become a reality if the Rockies do indeed trade Charlie Blackmon by the July 31st trade deadline.
Flexibility is certainly a way of putting it. Ian Desmond plays CF like any random position player CF that has poor athleticism does. He’s basically Matt Kemp out there
Yeah, hopefully the Rockies aren’t planning to give Murphy time at 2B.
Desmond has been playing in CF already.
Daniel Murphy is the player most affected.
Oh, no.
Watch Yonder Alonso rake with the Rockies, especially at Coors Field. At least in the NL he will play 1B. Alonso had the better glove with the White Sox in his brief stay there but Jose Abreu played more 1B, in part because the latter has been a less effective hitter in the DH role.