The Giants have outrighted outfielder Willie Calhoun to Triple-A Sacramento, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Calhoun was designated for assignment on Sunday.
Calhoun, 27, was once a highly-touted prospect of the Dodgers, cracking Baseball America’s top 100 in 2017. It was that year that the Dodgers traded him to the Rangers as the headliner of the deal that brought Yu Darvish to Los Angeles. However, a combination of injuries, underperformance and optional assignments have prevented Calhoun from establishing himself at the major league level. He’s only played more than half of an MLB season once, just barely reaching that threshold by getting into 83 games in 2019.
Earlier this year, he was optioned to the minors by the Rangers and publicly expressed a desire to be traded. Just over a month later, he was designated for assignment but cleared waivers and was outrighted. Since Calhoun has over three years of MLB service time, he could have rejected the outright assignment and elected free agency. However, since he has less than five years of service time, he would have had to forfeit the remainder of his $1.3MM salary. A couple weeks later, he finally departed the Rangers organization via a trade to the Giants.
The change of scenery seemingly served Calhoun well, as he hit .299/.386/.465 for Sacramento, registering a wRC+ of 115 in 41 games. That was enough to get him selected to the big league club last week, though he was designated for assignment after just nine plate appearances across four games.
It’s unclear whether Calhoun has accepted this outright assignment or elected free agency, though Calhoun should be able to return to the open market at season’s end regardless. All players with more than three years of MLB service time that have been outrighted off of their club’s 40-man roster can elect free agency at season’s end, meaning Calhoun can head to the open market shortly unless he accepts the assignment and is re-added to the roster in short order.
Typically selfish player with a me first attitude. Talent and promise squandered by an agenda.
I honestly thought Calhoun would be quite a player. But you’re right. He’s had a chip on his shoulder from day one.
Didn’t know that.
Willie is reading this right now
The Darvish- for Calhoun and Alexy trade was definitely not one of John Daniels’ shining moments. I hope Calhoun can get things figured out.
One of worst in recent memory, and iirc, a whole lot of people saw it coming. What a gift.
Gift? It was a pretty fair trade. Darvish did absolutely nothing
I thought he was going to pump 30+ HR potential, but his ceiling never matched reality with him. He needed to learn to be patient at plate instead of free swinging it, but he did not adapt. I would not be surprised if he either goes to Japan or Korea.
Asking to be traded, then you get outrighted because nobody wants to give up anything of value to get you. But, you don’t want to give up your salary so you accept the demotion.
Imagining pulling a diva move like this then when you find out you won’t get paid if you don’t take the demotion saying “oh, it’s cool”. Not embarrassing at all.
K
He’s got the makings of a journeyman
It seems Calhoun accepted his assignment. He’s in the RiverCats lineup tonight against Salt Lake
You have to wonder how prospects are rated. Willie Calhoun had one good offensive season in AAA. He was not a MLB level 2B and was moved to OF and showed even less.
Looks like a perfect player for a Sunday night softball beer league