The Athletics announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Michael Feliz off waivers from the Red Sox and cleared roster space by designating catcher Aramis Garcia for assignment. Boston had designated Feliz for assignment on Friday.
Feliz, 28, has split the season between the Pirates, Red Sox and Reds. He’s pitched fairly well for the former two, but his ERA on the year is an untenable 7.32 thanks to the 12 runs he allowed in 6 2/3 frames with Cincinnati. With the Red Sox, he held opponents to a pair of runs on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts through 5 1/3 innings. He’s also spent more than two months of the 2021 campaign on the injured list due to elbow troubles.
Feliz posted an impressive 30.5 percent strikeout rate and a 3.99 ERA in 56 1/3 innings with Pittsburgh back in 2019, but command problems and arm injuries have hindered him throughout his big league career. He’s missed time with shoulder and forearm injuries prior to this year’s elbow troubles. In 246 1/3 MLB innings between Houston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Boston the hard-throwing Feliz owns a 5.33 ERA with a 30 percent strikeout rate and a 9.8 percent walk rate. He’s also accrued more than five years of Major League service tie, meaning he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent.
Garcia, 28, came to the A’s alongside Elvis Andrus in the offseason trade that sent Khris Davis and catcher Jonah Heim to Texas. It was financially motivated swap for both parties, but the Rangers look to have gotten the better of the two backstops involved in the swap. Garcia has struggled to a .205/.239/.318 batting line this season — his first back from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip back in Feb. 2020.
Garcia has been a bit more productive in Triple-A, although his .268/.323/.393 showing there clocks in at about 23 percent below league-average production in that offensively charged setting, by measure of wRC+. Garcia will be out of minor league options in 2022, but teams around the league are in constant need of catching depth, so it’s possible another club will take a chance on him once he hits waivers in the wake of this DFA. He’s a career .268/.333/.448 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons and did post a .286/.308/.492 batting line in 65 plate appearances as a rookie with the Giants in 2018.
6’4” 250lbs. This guy eats his Wheaties
Didn’t look that bad with the Sox. Maybe the fourth team this season will be the charm
Is it me or are teams just giving up on players a lot easier this year. it seems like everybody goes through a couple of teams
Red Sox grabbed Feliz to help out with Covid epidemic running thru clubhouse. He pitched well, but there was just no room on 40-man roster to keep him longer. Covid has a lot to do with the musical chairs rosters this year.
Loading up at the scrap heap in advance
of the fire sale next season
Toronto had played two games less than BOS and NYY had played one less game than BOS going into tonight’s games. TOR lost to TB and NYY beat TEX so now TOR still is one game played behind both BOS and NYY.
The loss by TOR is huge since it finally puts BOS in front in the all important loss column. Now the loss totals are 65 BOS, 66 TOR, 67 NYY, 68 OAK and SEA 69. Two more games for each team in their current series with TOR needing to beat TB in TB, BOS needing to beat NYM in BOS, NYY needing to beat TEX in NY, OAK needing to beat SEA in OAK and of course SEA needing to be OAK in OAK.
The teams that flinch and lose take a big step toward elimination. On Thursday TOR plays in MIN to catch up in games played with BOS and NYY. OAK and SEA play one more time in OAK on Thursday to also catch up with BOS and NYY, so after Thursday all teams will have 9 games left! .(3 series consisting of 3 games)
BOS – at home vs NYY, on the road in BAL and on the road in WAS
TOR – on the road in MIN, at home vs NYY, at home vs BAL
NYY – on the road in BOS, on the road in TOR, at home vs TB
OAK – at home vs HOU, on the road in SEA, on the road in HOU
SEA – on the road in LAA, at home vs OAK, at home vs LAA
All remaining games are huge. Should be fun to watch how things play out!!
The beauty of the schedule, for us, is that TO & NYY play each other, so one of those teams has to lose at least 2 games.
If NY loses 2, then they’d be up to 69 losses, meaning they could only win 93 games.making our magic number over the NYY to be 8. The NYY would almost have to sweep us at that point.
If NY take 2-3, then TO & NY will likely be tied at that point, assuming that TO wins their extra game, With us likely being 2 games ahead of each.
One other little note-the schedule is such that we get 3 starts from Sale, while the NYY only get two (regular) starts from Cole. Tiny things, but at this stage, little things count.