The Rockies have sent catcher Jorge Alfaro outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to reject this assignment in favor of free agency but it’s not publicly known if he has done so.
Alfaro, 30, began the year on a minor league deal with the Red Sox. He mashed for the Triple-A club, hitting .320/.366/.520 in 191 plate appearances. He opted out of that deal and landed with the Rockies, who added him to their major league roster a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, he slashed just .161/.188/.387 in his 32 trips to the plate and was cut from the roster last week.
This has been a frustrating pattern for Alfaro, who has continually shown promise in the minors and then floundered in the majors. His career batting line in the big leagues is .254/.302/.396 whereas his Triple-A line is a much stronger .270/.317/.434. Since he’s generally considered a subpar defender behind the plate, that mercurial offensive performance has led to him continually bouncing on and off of rosters.
Since Alfaro has more than five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment while retaining his salary. He’ll therefore have to decide between reporting to Albuquerque and hoping for another shot with the Rockies or returning to the open market to see if there are other opportunities waiting for him. Since every club in the league just passed on the chance to grab him off waivers, he would probably be limited to minor league offers.
Red Sox have one catcher on the active roster. Surprised they didn’t claim him back when he was placed on waivers.
I believe they have Caleb Hamilton now backing up Connor Wong.
Why do catching needy teams keep taking a pass on this guy? Anyone have genuine insight?
“Since he’s generally considered a subpar defender behind the plate …”
Catching needy teams tend to at least be able to find a defense first catcher that can manage to hit .200/290/325.
If you can’t play at least par defensively, you better have a bat to justify a roster spot at catcher.
If Alfaro had stuck with the Sox he would be on the active roster now. Let’s see what Bloom does.
Caleb Hamilton made a fine defensive play last week and saved a win for the Sox. Connor Wong will be working hard for the time being.
Bloom jumped at that second chance! As they say, you don’t get them very often so better take advantage of them when they come along!