Center fielder Dustin Fowler cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment last week and has been assigned to the Pirates’ alternate training site, tweets Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He’ll remain with the organization but is no longer on the team’s 40-man roster.
The Pirates acquired Fowler, from the A’s in exchange for cash back in late February. An 18th-round pick of the Yankees back in 2013, Fowler emerged as one of the game’s more highly regarded outfield prospects and was a key piece sent from New York to Oakland in 2017’s Sonny Gray trade. Fowler was injured at the time, having incurred a ruptured patellar tendon when crashing into the wall in foul ground at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field in his MLB debut.
Fowler never managed to right the ship in the big leagues following that injury. He made his A’s debut in 2018 but managed only a .224/.256/.354 batting line in 203 trips to the plate. His work in Triple-A remained solid but not spectacular, and the A’s opted to move on in order to open a roster spot for their surprise signing of Trevor Rosenthal.
Fowler was a sensible roll of the dice for a Pirates club with little in the way of proven options in center field. He opened the year sharing time with fellow former top prospect Anthony Alford, but neither produced whatsoever in the first few weeks of the season. Fowler hit .171/.239/.195 with 20 strikeouts in 46 plate appearances before the Bucs designated him for assignment and turned center field over to Bryan Reynolds. Recent waiver claim and Rule 5 pick Ka’ai Tom figures to see some time out there as well now that he’s cleared intake testing and joined the club.
Fowler and Alford, who were designated for assignment one day apart, will get in some work with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate when the season gets underway next week and hope to work their way back into the mix for big league playing time. The Bucs seem to prefer Reynolds in left field and don’t have a clear center fielder ready to take over the reins, so it’s certainly possible that either could impress to the point that they receive another look.
Outright surprising
Do the Yankees bring him back to replace Tauchman?
I don’t think they will trade for him when they could have just picked him up for a small amount of cash a few days ago.
Nah. The Yankees don’t really need a Tauchman replacement, which is why he was moved. He was redundant and the lesser player compared to Gardner. The main problem Tauchman had was he was out of options, and that hurt the Yankees roster construction wise. The last guy on the bench and the last guy in the bullpen need to have minor league options. If the Yankees need a 5th OFer, they stashed Socrates Brito in AAA, and he’s a better option than either Folwer and probably Tauchman at this point. At least he has some lefthanded pop (Tauchman had none) and can play CF if needed.
There were times during 2018 that Fowler looked good for the A’s and I thought they had their centerfielder but he seemed to regress as time went on and the trip back to the minors was I assumed to get him back on course and I would see him back with the A’s. But he never got any plate discipline. I wanted him to succeed obviously with me being an A’s fan but also as he played the game hard but the fact it is a hard game to succeed at did him in or so it seems.
Dude plays a mean centerfield
So does Alford. But both were automatic outs.
Both looked pretty average to me. Fowler a little better.
Better with the bat, but Alford appeared to be the better defender/runner 5th OF type.
Pirates need other teams to drop se center fielders. Just need to fine a guy who can hit over .200 or exactly .200 even.
not really surprising. Pirates got a couple prospects that will be here probably next year (if not sooner) so they’ll continue throwing stuff at the wall, if one sticks.. more talent is good.
Alford’s injury really set him back. Hopefully he is able to adjust, he looked good in short sample last year.
Hard to say what impact the injury Fowler suffered early in his first MLB game had on his career. I had a chance to see him play a few games in AAA before he was called up and he has not quite looked the same in either the field or the plate since then. A slight loss of explosiveness at the plate and in the field. It was a gruesome knee injury, and knees form a hitter’s base, and of course impact sprint speed in the OF. Lose just a fraction and many players won’t be the same, especially if they were right on the fringe to being with. Some players have recovered from this type of injury, others have not. I wish him well. The fact he keeps bouncing around indicates teams have interest, but also don’t believe he can get back to where he was several years back pre injury.