The Marlins announced a pair of veteran additions to the upper levels of the farm system this evening (as relayed by Christina De Nicola of MLB.com). Miami signed center fielder Billy Hamilton to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Jacksonville; they’ve also acquired non-roster catcher Ryan Lavarnway in a trade with the Tigers.
Hamilton has appeared in the majors in every season between 2013-21. One of the fastest players in the sport, he stole between 56 and 59 bases in each of his first four full campaigns with the Reds. That athleticism was also on display on defense, as Hamilton consistently rated as an elite gloveman in center field. The baserunning and defense kept him in the everyday lineup for five seasons, but his bat has never developed as hoped.
The former second-round pick is a career .240/.293/.327 hitter in more than 3200 major league plate appearances. He’s particularly struggled in recent seasons, putting up a .213/.269/.299 line since the start of the 2019 campaign. Hamilton has taken on more of a journeyman role, suiting up with each of the Royals, Braves, Mets, Cubs and White Sox over the past three years.
Hamilton signed a minor league deal with the Mariners over the winter. He appeared in 22 games with their top affiliate in Tacoma, mustering only a .168/.263/.209 mark. He triggered an opt-out clause in that deal on June 1, and he’ll head to Florida after finding his latest opportunity. The Fish will add an experienced glove-first depth option behind a rather thin collection of center fielders.
Miami has given the bulk of the playing time at the position to Jesús Sánchez and Bryan De La Cruz, but both are probably stretched there defensively. Hamilton will need to show signs of life at the plate in Jacksonville to get a major league look, but he at least offers the potential for a complementary profile if he can work his way onto the MLB roster.
Lavarnway, meanwhile, has spent the entire season with the Tigers’ top affiliate in Toledo. The 34-year-old backstop has had a good showing with the Mud Hens, posting a .281/.385/.459 line through 174 plate appearances. He’s walked at an excellent 13.2% clip this year and generally has a strong upper minors track record.
A quintessential third catcher, Lavarnway got to the big leagues in ten of the eleven seasons between 2011-21 (2016 being the lone exception). Only twice has he exceeded 100 plate appearances, though, and he’s not reached ten games in a season since 2015. He continues to bounce around the league as a valued depth option, spending time in 11 different organizations — including a five-game stint with Miami two years ago.
The Marlins have Jacob Stallings and Nick Fortes on the MLB roster at the moment. Payton Henry is the only other backstop on the 40-man, but he’s been on the minor league injured list for the past two weeks. De Nicola tweeted this afternoon that Henry recently underwent surgery on his right thumb, necessitating the addition of another depth option at the position.
How is Ryan lavarnway still playing and mort importantly in any demand at all. Feel like she just been hanging around for like 20 years lol
He went to Yale for 3y, set all sorts of Ivy league records (hitting) with his bat in the 3y, then went in like the 8-9th round to Boston.. Same year they drafted 3 decent catchers high.. Him, Tim Federowicz and current catcher Christian vazquez.
Guy could always hit, just lousy on defense behind the plate and as to why stop playing? His major was some goofy thing, like sports medicine as remember.. Go to an Ivy league school and major in WHAT?!? no wonder he’s still playing. Yale must have done away with basket weaving courses.
If it was a trade, what did the Tigers get back from Miami?
Fifties hall of famer Cash Considerations
$500
Norm Cash considerations
That’s a good draft by dumpster diving Theo!
Haha..thought the same..good for him for still going to the ballpark and getting paid to do it!
Billy Hamilton is like the Vanilla Fudge, “You just keep me hangin’ on”
Billy just won’t let go
For the Marlins, it just might work.
Billy made a lot of fans on the Southside last year. He was fun to watch even he if did only hit .220.
.220 is like 30% above average this year! Although, that says nothing for his OPS+, etc…
Billy was awesome. Deserves a shot
The only worthwhile Billy Hamilton retired 120 years ago.
The only good Cosmo retired never because he was never in the game.
Tell you what, if you wanna try again and post something actually clever, we’ll give you a mulligan on the above bit of childishness. Odd that a legit criticism of a player gets you so bothered.
I’m only doing this because your a trash fan. No player has value to you unless they are on your teams roster. Legit criticism? He retired 120 years ago? How in any way, is THAT, legit criticism? Only think that bothers me is your consistent trashyness to players you don’t find Valuable. Trash.
Aka “ Sliding” Billy Hamilton
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hamilbi01.shtml
Learn some history Drew waters.
Cosmo wins for being witty and knowing a little bit of baseball history. Extra points if you didn’t have to look up when the first BH retired.
By the way, Drew waters, loved you in Bones.
Ok. I looked. What are those stats? It reads like a cartoon line. But scoring almost 200 runs with 15 triple seasons? Even more 7 strikeouts in 82 games? 19 strikeouts in 702 plate appearances, like seriously? What kind of pitchers were they seeing?
Had to look up that drew waters. You knew you’d get me.
And my statement remains true, I can’t find a baseball player named Cosmo, Kozma is the closest. There is a mascot in Vegas named Cosmo, looks like jar jar binks.
There are a couple really good pitchers it that time, Cy Young included. But other than that, not a whole lot more. Kid Nicholls is what’s up.
The greatest leadoff hitter of all time, that Sliding Billy Hamilton.
What did the Tigers get in return for Ryan Lavarnway?
Did someone delete the witty comment? I certainly don’t see it.
Billyball!
Tigers got a recently discovered, 20 year old Gatorade bottle full of Gary Sheffield’s dip spit.
@Drew Waters Bat
You’re making me defend a Mets fan. That’s sad…on you.
I give @Cosmo credit for a witty statement that works well with the humor that was needed. I would’ve made it less funny because I would’ve been asking if Billy has a fastball as fast as his legs, and can his pitches miss as many bats as his bat misses pitches? If so, we can use him to fix our main problem – the need for a legit Closer.
Was there ever a reliever with the name Billy Hamilton that can saves games?
In short, @Cosmo gets a pass. He comes with some good stuff in his posts. When he does this, who cares if he sounds like Keith Hernandez and makes guys like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuna, etc. sound like they’re garbage while making guys like Brandon Nimmo, Luis Guillorme, and Tomas Nido sound like they’re bound for Cooperstown.
@Drew Waters Bat
And FYI – we all retired from baseball at some point…whether it be after t-ball (in your case), rec league, travel league, High School Freshman Ball, High School JV, High School Varsity, MiLB, Indie League, International Leagues, College Ball (any Division) or in MLB. At some point, either we realize or are told that we can no longer play the game any more. Every player in the history of mankind has retired at some point and level. @Cosmo retired at whatever level he played up to. I retired after Division I. I’m sure you went out on top after a glorious 10-year t-ball career.
Darn, you’re making me defend a Mets fan! Sad!
Seems like comso has a second account. Nobody is making you do anything. I don’t really care what you have to write. Cosmo has a typical, elitist attitude that comes with everyone from NY. It is what it is. Have a great day Mr marlin fan.
Go Billy Go!
Tigers should trade them Mike Rabelo again, while they’re at it.
Ryan Lavarnway and Billy Hamilton on the same day to the same team? Good Lord, what is going on? Something tells me we should all watch our phones tonight. We may be getting a text from the Marlins.
Can you close games? Anyone of us can Close no worse than this bullpen.
Reds need to set senzel no production out of him leave almora in center moose ant done nothing but putting on weight and voto ageing time for some hard moves like it or not
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
Or a post about the Marlins. On a site where comments are typically in English.
Take it easy on Redsy. Imagine how tough it must be to type on a flip phone at the same time you’re yelling at the neighbor kids to get off your lawn!
Marlins gonna Marlins…
Lavarnway is the anti Molina. Can’t believe he’s 34.
He’s the proto-typical 3rd string catcher. Comes up, plays less than 10 games, but stays on the 40-man roster as a “just in case” guy.
@mlb1225
We all have to admit, it’s good work if you are good enough to get it.
Two Tool Billy
He’s made over $15 million, and if he appears in the majors this season that will be 10 for his career. He’s made the most of those two tools.
Quntana is just wasting away in AAA watching Marlins catchers do jack squat.
I remember him!! Fast guy.
Feels like Lavarnway has been around 20 years already. He’ll be the new Tim Federowicz and just go wherever he’s needed.
If Hamilton can find his way on to the Marlins and actually get on base (probably best suited for pinch running) it could be fun watching him and Jazz Chisholm run the bases
Why doesn’t Hamilton sign with a foreign team?????
He doesn’t have the plate discipline, bat speed, or strength to survive in the MLB. He doesn’t need strength to play in Japan or Korea. He has the speed and defensive ability to potentially carve out a lucrative career abroad. The dude could easily be a premier CF with a passable slash and incredible ability on the base paths. He just needs to swallow his pride and look at the earning potential.
Beans:
You are telling him to “swallow his pride”?
He has more career WAR than say Rhys Hoskins or Hunter Renfroe. Hamilton has made over $15 million as a baseball player, played good defense, and has over 300 stolen bases.
He has played a ton in the minor leagues anyway to get another chance to be the last guy on some team’s roster. I would say that Hamilton has already swallowed his pride because he wants to keep playing. He is not very good any more, but he is still better than a large number of minor league outfielders. That being said, he is an odd fit for the Marlins.
Okay, “swallow his pride” was a poor choice of words, yet everything else is true.
He’s going on 32 and he can still earn more abroad with his current skill set than being the last guy on the bench somewhere, only to be sent back or dfa’d the next day.
Also, he’s played like 2 seasons worth of games more than both those guys you mentioned, so not really sure what that’s about
Beans, maybe it isn’t about money. He’s made more than $15 million, though it could be about picking up service time to get the full pension. (he’s t 8.009 years). Maybe it is about being in the majors again. If I had his talent and was in his position, given the money already earned, I’d probably stay in the states and take my chances to make it back to the majors.
If I had 15 million I would put a pretty high preference on which country I wanted to live in. I mean Japan and Korea seem amazing… but presence of friends and family in addition to what language is spoken would be a pretty strong pull.
As I discussed, I was totally against the Tigers trading Paredes to the Rays.
Paredes just had a 3 home run night.
Rays rarely lose in trades.
Paredes is just getting started.
Rays may have found their next Randy Arozarina (sp) or even better.https://www.mlb.com/news/isaac-paredes-hits-three-home-runs-in-win-vs-yankees
We’ll see if it spurs a turnaround. But he’s been pretty bad this year as a whole. I never like trading that kind of young depth, especially for outfield depth, but he did get passed up by Kreider, Short, and Castro some how. I didn’t like the trade at the beginning of the year, but I dont think it necessarily looks any worse after just one came. Dude is still hitting like .175 or thereabouts.
When Scoop resigned for 2 years, and Baez for 3-6 years it out a huge logjam for anyone to crack the Tiger infield. Parades has hit everywhere he has played ,even though he has been young for that level. I expect him to be a .280/.320/.750 hitter for his future MLB career. The trade for Meadows looks bad today, but when he gets back to his career numbers, he may be very even
Billy Hamilton was forced to turn into a switch hitter by the Reds. Robbed him of all his power & consistency. At this stage, I would stick to the right side. His average & power should increase. Being forced to squirrel grounders just hasn’t worked.
His premier defense & blinding speed was a pleasure to watch!
Billy Hamilton was fun to watch with the CWS playing different roles. Problem was he’s maybe 150lbs dripping wet, so pitchers know to just throw heat and it looks like he’s swinging a toothpick.
Hope he stops by Soxfest when he finally hangs up his spikes. Cup of coffee, but fan favorite in his short time. Who can forget the catch, memorialized in a t-shirt?
Total class act human. Just too bad the OBP was never high enough to keep him in the lineup.
Tigers got somebody named Cash Considerations for Lavarnway. Hopefully he can hit like Norm.
Hamilton can be that scary ghost runner in the tenth for a team, that has value. You can’t teach speed that’s for sure. I’m shocked Lavarnway is still in baseball, I don’t know whether to congratulate him or pitty him.
@kingbum
Great wheels, but I always found it odd what a poor baserunner he was in the sense of lead offs. Sad he could never seen to squeeze into atleast a .310 obp. Solid defense. Jarrod Dyson profile.
I wonder if either of these guys can help our bullpen close out games?