Outfielder Alex Call has been claimed off waivers by the Nationals from the Guardians, per announcements from both clubs. Call had been designated for assignment by the Guards on Friday. He has been optioned by the Nationals to Triple-A. The Nats had an open 40-man roster spot, meaning no corresponding move will be necessary.
A third round draft pick of the White Sox, Call switched organizations in the trade that sent Yonder Alonso from Cleveland to Chicago. He was selected to the big league club and made his MLB debut in July. Though he drew four walks in 16 plate appearances, he didn’t impress much otherwise in his small sample. He currently has a line of .167/.375/.167 in his brief MLB career. In 71 Triple-A games this year, he has an excellent .280/.418/.494 line for a wRC+ of 146, with almost equal walk and strikeout rates of 16.1% and 16.4%, respectively.
Of course, the Nationals made huge headlines in recent weeks with the lead-up to the Juan Soto deadline trade, arguably the most significant transaction in history. By giving up on a generational talent that they could have kept around through the 2024 season, they’ve clearly waved a white flag on near-term competitiveness. As such, it makes sense that they would be interested in taking fliers on controllable players such as Call. He will head to Rochester as outfield depth and try to work his way up to a big league club that currently has Victor Robles, Lane Thomas, Yadiel Hernandez and Josh Palacios as part of the regular outfield mix.
A Call to arms. And not that much of a long distance call either.
So he’ll be depth for for a team that currently doesn’t have any OF Written in pen. Wish he’d made it to Detroit.
“.167/.375/.167 in his brief MLB career . . . ”
Well, if that doesn’t make up for the loss of Juan Soto, I don’t know what will . . .
Soto to SoCal so Call to South Capitol
I regret that Alex is leaving the team. He profiles as a 4th or 5th outfielder, but he plays hard and is a good fielder in all three outfield spots. I hope the Nationals call him up and he does well.
Collect Call for Mike Rizzo.
I would not downplay the small sample size of at bats. Call got robbed on a liner high off the left field fence. Outfielder left his feet and leaped pretty high and speared the liner. Instead of 2-12 he’s 3-12 which means suddenly he’s hitting .250 with a .425 OBP.
At least one of his walks came after an 0-2 count and another walk started a 2 out rally. I wish they had given him at least 50 at bats before designating him. 4 walks in 20 at bats is still pretty impressive, that’s 100 walks over 500 at bats.