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Archives for August 2023

José Bautista To Officially Retire

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José Bautista hasn’t played in a big league game since 2018 but had never officially retired in the years after his last appearance. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet was among those to report today that Bautista will sign a one-day contract with Toronto to officially retire as a Blue Jay, as part of the ceremony wherein he will be added to the club’s Level of Excellence on Saturday.

Bautista, now 42, didn’t have the typical path to baseball stardom as he wasn’t a high draft pick or top prospect. The Pirates selected him in the 20th round of the draft in 2000 and he would get some modest attention from prospect evaluators after that, with Baseball America ranking him #14 in the system in 2002 and #7 in 2003.

In 2004, he had an especially unusual season, getting selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft. As the season wore on, he was claimed off waivers by the Devil Rays, then was subsequently traded to the Royals, Mets and back to the Pirates. He would stick with the Pirates for a few years, mostly as a third baseman but also playing some outfield. He showed glimpses of his potential at the plate, hitting 16 home runs in 2006, 15 the year after and another 15 in 2008.

That 2008 season saw him traded to the Blue Jays in August for a player to be named later, which was eventually revealed as Robinzon Díaz. A fairly forgettable transaction at the time, it would later prove to be the start of the defining era of Bautista’s career.

His first full season as a Blue Jay wasn’t especially noteworthy, as Bautista hit 13 home runs in 2009, though there were a few developments that would prove to be important in later years. He began incorporating a leg kick into his swing and also started to spend more time in right field, with his strong throwing arm a good fit for that spot.

In 2010, at the age of 29, Bautista broke out in stunning fashion. He launched 54 home runs for the Jays that year, setting a new single season record for the franchise. He also showed a keen eye at the plate, drawing walks in 14.6% of his plate appearances. His .260/.378/.617 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 165, indicating he was 65% better than the league average hitter. The Jays decided to bank on that breakout, giving Bautista a five-year, $65MM extension that covered his final arbitration season and four free agent years, with a club option for 2016.

He followed that up with an even better season overall. His home run tally dropped to 43 in 2011, but his patient approach allowed him to take advantage of pitchers giving him less to hit. He was walked in 20.2% of his trips to the plate in 2011, leading to a .302/.447/.608 slash line. His 180 wRC+ was the best in the majors that year and would eventually prove to be his personal best as well. He was considered to be worth 8.1 wins above replacement by FanGraphs and 8.4 by Baseball Reference. He came in third in AL MVP voting behind Justin Verlander and Jacoby Ellsbury.

His production would continue in fairly similar fashion for years to come, defined by both his power output and on-base abilities. From 2012 to 2016, he hit between 22 and 40 home runs each year with his walk rate never finishing below 13.1%. Despite that excellent production, and that of another late-blooming star in Edwin Encarnación, the Jays struggled to push too far beyond .500 in most of those seasons.

The 2015 season finally changed that, with the Jays aggressively bolstering the roster by adding Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin and others in the offseason. The trade deadline saw further aggression, with the club adding a batch of players headlined by Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. The moves paid off when the Jays surged in the final months of the season and finished 93-69, winning the American League East and cracking the postseason for the first time since 1993.

Bautista’s first opportunity to play in the playoffs would lead to a singular moment and image that are now cemented in the minds of millions of baseball fans. The Jays squared off against the Rangers in the Wild Card series, which had a best-of-five format at that time. The Jays lost the first two games but rallied to tie it up and force a fifth contest.

In the deciding game, the Jays fell behind in the top of the seventh 3-2 on a strange play wherein Rougned Odor scored when Martin’s attempted throw back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez hit the bat of Shin-Soo Choo and ricocheted away. Home plate umpire Dale Scott initially ruled the ball dead but the umpiring crew eventually allowed the run to score. That soured the mood in the stadium, with many fans throwing debris to express their displeasure.

In the bottom of the frame, several defensive miscues from the Rangers allowed the Jays to tie the game up before Bautista launched a two-out, three-run home run to give the Jays a 6-3 lead. Bautista reacted to the emotionally-charged atmosphere by flipping his bat high into the air, which proved to be controversial in some baseball circles, though it would quickly become an iconic moment among Jays’ fans. Toronto held on to win that game but would lose to the Royals in the ALCS.

After Bautista’s extension ended, the Jays gave him a $17.2MM qualifying offer for 2017. He rejected that and became a free agent but eventually returned to Toronto via a one-year, $18.5MM deal. He still hit 23 home runs and walked in 12.2% of his plate appearances, but his overall production fell to .203/.308/.366 and a wRC+ of 81.

In 2018, he returned to the journeyman status that started his career, bouncing to the Braves, Mets and Phillies. He didn’t sign with a club in the years to come, though he did reportedly consider a comeback as a two-way player in 2020, but later threw some cold water on those reports. He played for the Dominican Republic team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were pushed to 2021 by delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now it seems his playing days will be officially ended during this weekend’s festivities, tying a bow on one of the more unique baseball journeys. Though Bautista began and ended his career as a journeyman, he had a late bloom that led to a lengthy stretch as one of the best players in the league. From 2010 to 2015, he hit 227 home runs, easily the most in the league for that time with Miguel Cabrera second at 199. He slashed .268/.390/.555 in that time for a wRC+ of 156 and tallied 33.2 fWAR, that latter figure placing him sixth among position players. His 60 outfield assists in that stretch were topped by just three other big leaguers. He engineered many memorable moments during that peak, too many to list here, featuring both his tremendous talents as well as his fiery and standout personality.

Over his career as a whole, he played 1,798 games and took 7,244 trips to the plate. He launched 344 home runs and walked at a 14.2% rate, leading to a .247/.361/.475 batting line and 126 wRC+. He had 1,496 hits, 1,022 runs scored, 975 driven in and stole 70 bases. He tallied 35.3 fWAR and 36.7 bWAR. He made six straight All-Star teams from 2010 to 2015, led the league in home runs twice, earned a couple of Hank Aaron awards and three Silver Sluggers. As a Blue Jay, his tallies of 38.3 bWAR and 36.2 fWAR are both the best in franchise history among position players, with only Dave Stieb and Roy Halladay ahead of him overall.

We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Bautista on an incredibly special career and wish him the best in all his post-playing endeavors.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Bobby Morgan Passes Away

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Former big leaguer Bobby Morgan recently passed away, per Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman. Morgan died June 1 but his family preferred not to make an announcement, which is why the news is only coming out now. He was 96 years old.

Morgan was born in Oklahoma City in 1926. He became a professional baseball player in 1944, signing with the Dodgers and getting some experience in the minor leagues. But he was then drafted for military duty in World War II, spending 1945 and 1946 in the European Theater as a member of the Army.

He returned to baseball after that, eventually making his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950. He got into 67 games that year, hitting .226 while serving as a utility infielder behind players like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges.

Morgan didn’t play in the majors in 1951 but got into 136 games over 1952 and 1953, playing all three infield positions to the left of first base. He walked in 16.7% of plate appearances over those two seasons, leading to a .381 on-base percentage. The Dodgers won the National League pennant in each of those years but were defeated by the Yankees in the World Series both times. Morgan got one plate appearance in each series but lined out in both instances.

He was then traded to the Phillies and carved out a larger role, getting into 271 games over the 1954 and 1955 campaigns, bouncing around the infield. He then spent some time with the Cardinals and Cubs later in his career as well.

Overall, Morgan got into 671 regular season contests, notching 487 hits, including 96 doubles, 11 triples and 53 home runs. He scored 286 runs, drove in 217 and stole 18 bases. After his playing career ended, he did some minor league managing and scouting. We MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and fans.

The Opener: Harper, Chang, Sale

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With another weekend of baseball set to kick off, here are some things we’ll be keeping our eye on around the league…

1. Harper dealing with back spasm

Phillies superstar Bryce Harper was removed from last night’s game due to a mid-back spasm and will undergo further evaluation, with Todd Zolecki of MLB.com among those to relay the info. It’s unclear at this point how serious the issue is, though it would obviously be an unwelcome development if Harper had to miss any time. Manager Rob Thomson described Harper as day-to-day, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Harper already missed over a month of the season due to last year’s Tommy John surgery and has also been limited defensively since being activated in early May.

He has been able to hit but hasn’t quite been himself. His .294/.380/.429 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 120, still well above average but that would be his lowest rate of production since 2016. He’s seemingly been getting better as the year has gone along, however, slashing .303/.386/.438 in July and .324/.350/.622 in August. Having to put a pause on his season after building so much momentum would be unfortunate for the Phils, though they will surely hope the issue is mild and passes quickly.

2. Will Chang finally clear waivers?

Infielder Yu Chang hasn’t hit too much in the majors but his defensive acumen clearly has appeal. Last year, he began the season with the Guardians but had exhausted his option years and bounced around quite a bit. After getting designated for assignment by the Guards in May, he went to the Pirates in a cash deal before bouncing to the Rays and Red Sox on waiver claims.

The Sox non-tendered Chang in November but later re-signed him on a major league deal when Trevor Story required elbow surgery. Chang missed over two months due to a hamate fracture and has now been nudged off the roster by the return of Story, getting designated for assignment on Tuesday. He’s hit just .204/.265/.359 in his career but is above-average at all four infield spots and can be controlled for two seasons beyond the current campaign. With the trade deadline having passed, he will be on the waiver wire again and could appeal to a club that seeks infield depth.

3. The return of Sale?

The Red Sox haven’t listed a starter for tonight’s game against the Tigers but it seems likely to be Chris Sale. The lefty has been on the injured list for over two months due to shoulder inflammation but has been on a rehab assignment of late and manager Alex Cora recently hinted that Sale could be back in the big leagues by Friday, with Christopher Smith of MassLive among those to relay the info.

Injuries have been a huge issue for the southpaw in recent years, as he hasn’t thrown 60 innings in a season since 2019. Prior to landing on the IL, he tossed 59 innings this year with a 4.58 ERA. The Sox would surely love to get him back to his previous ace level, but results similar to earlier this year would also be welcome. They have frequently been deploying openers and bullpen games to cover for the absences of Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck. Both Whitlock and Houck are currently on rehab assignments and could return to the club soon as well.

Latest On Jung Hoo Lee

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KBO star Jung Hoo Lee has been one of the more intriguing potential free agents of the upcoming offseason ever since reports back in January indicated that he would be posted by his KBO club, the Kiwoom Heroes. A wrench was thrown in that plan when he recently required ankle surgery, though Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports today that Lee is still expected to sign with a major league club this winter.

Lee, 24, already has an impressive résumé in his short career. He won Rookie of the Year in the KBO in 2017 by hitting .324/.395/.417 when he was just 18 years old for most of the season. He continued to take steps forward in the years to come, especially in 2022. He launched 23 home runs and finished with a batting line of .349/.421/.575 for a wRC+ of 175. He struck out in 5.1% of his plate appearances while walking in 10.5% of them. He stole five bases and won a fifth straight Gold Glove, with all of those attributes leading to a Most Valuable Player award.

This year won’t be the perfect platform season for him, as he’s been a notch below that MVP form. His walk rate went up to 12.7% but he hit just six home runs, leading to a .319/.407/.456 batting line. His 142 wRC+ indicates he’s still been well above league average but not quite as outrageously as he was last year. To top things off, he’s now missing the final months of the season due to his aforementioned ankle surgery.

Perhaps he or the Heroes would have given some second thought to his posting, maybe delaying it by a year, though it seems the plan has yet to be altered. Morosi relays that neither party has given any indication that the path forward has changed.

Lee will turns 25 years old later this month and will no longer be considered an “amateur” by MLB rules and won’t be subject to the bonus pool system. He will therefore be free to sign a contract of any length or dollar amount, with the signing club also responsible for paying a posting fee to the Heroes. That’s tied to the size of the contract itself, with the MLB team owing the KBO club 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any dollars thereafter. That fee is on top of any dollars guaranteed to the player himself, and subsequent earning (e.g. performance incentives, contract options) are also subject to the posting system once they become guaranteed to the player.

This winter’s free agent class is headlined by starting pitchers, with very few impact bats expected to be available. Assuming Lee’s ankle heals up in the months to come and he is posted as expected, he figures to still draw plenty of interest.

Dodgers Activate Clayton Kershaw From Injured List

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The Dodgers announced that left-hander Clayton Kershaw has been activated from the injured list, with fellow lefty Victor González optioned in a corresponding move.

Kershaw, 35, was placed on the 15-day IL July 3, retroactive to June 30, due to soreness in his left shoulder. It was initially hoped that the southpaw could return after a brief respite, perhaps only missing a start or two since the All-Star break was coming up. However, subsequent reporting indicated he would likely be out until early August, which has now come to pass, as he will take the ball to start tonight’s game against the Rockies.

Prior to the IL stint, the results continued to be excellent for Kershaw. He’s thrown 95 1/3 innings over 16 starts so far this year, having allowed 2.55 earned runs per nine innings. His 27.7% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 47.2% ground ball rate are all above league average.

Trips to the IL have become the norm for him, with 2015 being the last season in which he didn’t have at least one stint away from the club. That was also the last year in which he topped 180 regular season innings, and he’s been held beneath 127 frames in each campaign since 2019.

Although Kershaw’s absence wasn’t especially long, rotation health has been and continues to be a major focus for the club. Walker Buehler has been on the IL all year due to last year’s Tommy John surgery. Dustin May required flexor tendon surgery a few months back and won’t return this year. Tony Gonsolin missed time due to an ankle sprain and Julio Urías was sidelined by a hamstring strain. Ryan Pepiot was on the IL for about four months due to an oblique strain and Michael Grove recently hit the shelf due to lat tightness.

The club acquired Lance Lynn from the White Sox prior to the deadline to bolster the rotation, though he has an ERA over 6.00 for the year. They also wanted to acquire Eduardo Rodriguez from the Tigers and reportedly had a deal in place, though he nixed that with his limited no-trade clause. That leaves the club with a five-man rotation of Kershaw, Lynn, Urías, Gonsolin and rookie Bobby Miller for the time being. Urías and Gonsolin have also been a bit shaky this year, with ERAs of 4.39 and 4.43, respectively. Depth options include Pepiot, Gavin Stone, and Emmet Sheehan, though each of those have posted middling results this year. Ryan Yarbrough is on hand as a long relief option in the bullpen and could perhaps jump into a rotation role, if needed.

Despite those rotation challenges, the Dodgers are still leading the National League West, six games clear of the Giants. The health and performance of the rotation figures to be an important factor in how strong they finish the regular season and perhaps how they perform in the postseason.

Marlins Outright José Castillo

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The Marlins have outrighted left-hander José Castillo to Triple-A Jacksonville, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. There had been no previous indication that the club had designated him for assignment, but they evidently passed him through waivers in recent days. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Castillo, 27, has only been a member of the organization for a short time, having been acquired from the Padres in a cash deal just over two weeks ago. He had a solid major league debut with the Friars back in 2018, tossing 38 1/3 innings while allowing 3.29 earned runs per nine frames. He struck out 34.7% of the batters that came to the plate while walking 8% of them.

Unfortunately, injuries have prevented him from building off that strong first impression. A torn ligament in his hand limited him to just two thirds of an inning in 2019, then a lat strain wiped out his 2020. He then required Tommy John surgery in March of 2021, which kept him on the shelf until last summer, with the Padres mostly keeping him in the minors for the final months of the year. He finished 2022 with a strong 2.91 ERA in 43 Triple-A appearances.

But here in 2023, a left shoulder strain put him on the IL to start the year and he made just one major league appearance in early July, allowing four earned runs in a third of an inning. His work in Triple-A hasn’t been pretty this year either, with a 12.27 ERA in 22 frames at that level between the two organizations.

Those injuries and poor recent results likely helped him slip through waivers unclaimed. He’s also in his final option year, meaning he’ll be out of options for 2024. He has the right to reject this assignment since he has over three years of major league service time. However, he lacks the five years of service necessary to reject it and also retain his salary.

He and the Padres avoided arbitration in the winter by agreeing to a $730K salary for 2023, with about $240K left to be paid out. He would have to leave that money on the table for the right to pursue other opportunities, so perhaps he will stick with the Marlins to provide them with some depth but without using a spot on the 40-man roster. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end if he still doesn’t have a roster spot at that time.

Tigers Release Andrew Knapp, Three Others From Minor League Deals

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The Tigers have released catcher Andrew Knapp and right-hander Ashton Goudeau, according to their respective transaction trackers at MLB.com. The club also announced to reporters, including Evan Woodbery of MLive, that pitchers Miguel Del Pozo and Kervin Castro have been released with each having undergone Tommy John surgery earlier this year.

Knapp, 31, is the most experienced of the bunch, having appeared in 325 major league games since his 2017 debut. He signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in January but has been in Triple-A all year. In 70 games at that level, he hit .253/.337/.397 for a wRC+ of 84.

The Tigers have used Jake Rogers and Eric Haase behind the plate in the majors this year, with both of them staying healthy and preventing the club from reaching into its depth. Donny Sands had recently been in Double-A, helping to cover for an injury to prospect Dillon Dingler. But Dingler was recently activated, freeing Sands to return to Triple-A and handle the catching duties there alongside Michael Papierski, which seems to have made Knapp redundant.

Goudeau, 31, has 32 major league appearances on his ledger with a 5.57 ERA. He signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason but has a 7.42 ERA in 60 2/3 Triple-A innings this year, striking out 16.8% of opponents while walking 10.7%.

The Tigers announced in June that both Del Pozo and Castro underwent Tommy John surgeries, with Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic among those to relay the info at that time. They will each be out of action for the remainder of this season and much of 2024 as well. The 30-year-old Del Pozo has a 9.82 ERA in 27 major league appearances, the last of which was in 2021. The 24-year-old Castro has a 4.91 ERA in 20 big league games, with his last appearance having been in August of 2022.

Each of these players signed minor league deals with the Tigers coming into the year but will now return to the open market and look for their next opportunities. Del Pozo and Castro won’t have any short-term appeal to clubs but could perhaps try to land two-year deals that would allow them to rehab and return late in 2024. Depth catching and pitching tend to always be needed somewhere, which could help Knapp and Goudeau find jobs in the near future.

White Sox Claim Deivi Garcia

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2:34pm: The White Sox announced that they have indeed claimed Garcia off outright waivers. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. Liam Hendriks moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

1:27pm: The White Sox have claimed right-hander Deivi Garcia off waivers from the Yankees, reports Erik Boland of Newsday. The Yankees had designated the former top prospect for assignment earlier in the week. The teams have not yet announced the move (or, in Chicago’s case, a corresponding 40-man transaction).

Garcia, 24, was considered one of the sport’s top pitching prospects not long ago, ranking on most top-100 lists prior to both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The right-hander blitzed through the lower minors after signing as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic, reaching the Double-A level as a 19-year-old back in 2018. He had success both in High-A and Double-A the following year before being hit hard in Triple-A, but struggling at the minors’ top level as a 20-year-old facing vastly older competition hardly stood as any kind of red flag.

The canceled 2020 minor league season could well have impacted Garcia more than many other prospects. With no minor league games in which to play, he was rushed to the big leagues as a 21-year-old, turning in a 4.98 ERA in six starts (34 1/3 innings). His 22.6% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate were both encouraging, but Garcia was tagged for six home runs in that debut effort and struggled to strand runners once he’d allowed them to reach.

As with his 2019 struggles as one of the youngest players at the Triple-A level, however, Garcia’s lackluster 2020 results weren’t considered particularly damning. Jumping to the big leagues as a 21-year-old with only 40 innings of Triple-A experience is hardly an easy task, and at insofar as his ability to miss bats and limit walks, he more than held his own. The next two years, however, told another story.

From 2021-22, Garcia logged only 8 1/3 big league innings. In 2021, that was at least partially due to a lack of opportunity. The ’21 Yankees received 29 or more starts from each of Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon, with another 18 from Domingo German, 16 from Corey Kluber and 14 from Nestor Cortes. There weren’t many extra starts to go around, but Garcia’s performance didn’t necessarily merit much of a look anyway. He was torched for a 6.85 ERA in 90 2/3 innings at Triple-A that season, and his 2022 results weren’t any better; Garcia logged a combined 6.89 ERA in 64 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in ’22. He didn’t pitch in the Majors that season.

It’s been largely the same in 2023. A move to the bullpen in Triple-A hasn’t been much help, evidenced by a 5.67 ERA and sky-high 14.6% walk rate in 48 innings. Garcia allowed just one run in 5 2/3 big league frames earlier in the year, but he did so with more walks issued (four) than strikeouts (three). Command has emerged as a major problem for the right-hander, who’s doled out a free pass to 14.2% of his opponents en route to a 6.52 ERA in 214 career innings at Triple-A.

There were always some concerns about the manner in which Garcia would be able to handle a starter’s workload. Listed at 5’9″ and 165 pounds, he’s considerably slighter in frame than the overwhelming majority of big league starters. Garcia indeed has spent time on the injured list in each of the past three seasons, and his fastball velocity has fluctuated accordingly. He averaged 95.1 mph this year in a pair of relief outings — a notable bump from the 92.1 mph he averaged as a starter in the Majors from 2020-21.

Whether the White Sox plan to use Garcia as a starter or reliever isn’t clear at this point, but he’s spent the bulk of the ’23 season coming out of the Scranton bullpen. For a Chicago team that’s already waved the white flag on the 2023 season, there’s plenty of sense in scooping up a former top prospect and seeing if a change of scenery can do him any good. Garcia is in his final minor league option year, meaning he can be sent to Triple-A for the remainder of the current season without needing to go through waivers. However, he’ll be out of options next spring, so the Sox will need to either keep him on the Opening Day roster or designate him for assignment themselves — if he’s even able to stick on the 40-man roster that long.

The White Sox currently have baseball’s fourth-worst record, which gave them waiver priority over all but three teams. Each of the A’s, Royals and Rockies apparently passed on placing a claim on Garcia. The Rays were among the other teams to place a claim on Garcia today, tweets Boland, though Tampa Bay has the third-best record in MLB (and thus the third-lowest waiver priority).

Astros Outright Bligh Madris

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Aug. 10: Madris went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Sugar Land, tweets Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle.

Aug. 8: The Astros announced that outfielder Bligh Madris has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to Jon Singleton, whose selection was reported yesterday.

Madris, 27, has been bounced on and off the Houston rosters this year, both the active and 40-man versions. Acquired from the Tigers in an offseason cash deal, he didn’t make the Astros out of Spring Training and was designated for assignment on Opening Day. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A, sticking in the organization. He was added back to the club’s roster in June but was put into just 12 games in a span of over one month before being optioned a couple of weeks ago.

Between his stint with the Astros this year and the Pirates last year, he’s hit just .173/.248/.252 in 153 major league plate appearances. He’s generally fared much better in the minors, including a line of .243/.357/.442 in Triple-A this year. Though in the offensively-charged environment of the Pacific Coast League, that amounts to a wRC+ of just 92.

With the trade deadline now in the past, the Astros will have no choice but to place Madris on outright waivers or release waivers. Since he was previously outrighted, he would have the right to reject a second such assignment in favor of electing free agency. Though this year hasn’t been amazing, he hit .297/.366/.510 in the minors last year and still has a couple of option years, including this one, as well as less than a year of service time. He could potentially be a long-term depth piece for any club willing to give him a 40-man roster spot.

White Sox Release Stephen Piscotty

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The Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, released Stephen Piscotty on Wednesday, per the transaction log on MiLB.com. The 32-year-old outfielder is now a free agent.

Piscotty agreed to a minor league contract with the Giants in February, receiving an invitation to spring training. Despite a strong showing in the Cactus League (.810 OPS in ten games), he was reassigned to Triple-A Sacramento toward the end of the spring. He requested his release before Opening Day, a request the organization granted. The veteran signed another minor league deal with the White Sox a few weeks later and was assigned to Triple-A Charlotte. Unfortunately, he didn’t exactly light up the International League, batting .232 with a .720 OPS in 51 games before his release.

The journeyman began his career with the Cardinals, who selected him in the first round of the 2012 draft using one of the compensation picks they received for losing Albert Pujols. Piscotty made his big league debut in 2015, slashing .305/.359/.494 in 63 games and even earning a down-ballot Rookie of the Year vote. He was promising enough in his first two seasons to earn a six-year, $33.75 million extension that would keep him under contract until 2022 (with a club option for 2023). However, he struggled at the plate in his third season, and the Cardinals would trade him to the Athletics the following winter.

Piscotty bounced back in his first season with the A’s, hitting a career-high 27 home runs to go along with an .821 OPS. However, his bounceback was shortlived; his 2019 season was plagued by injuries, and his offensive numbers plummeted again. His struggles only intensified in 2020 and 2021; his strikeout rate soared, his power disappeared, and injuries continued to take their toll on his body. In 117 games from 2020-21, he posted a 28.1% strikeout rate, a 6.1% walk rate, and a .133 isolated power, good for a .632 OPS. The 2022 campaign was more of the same, and the Athletics eventually released Piscotty in August. He has not played a game in the majors since.

The Reds took a shot at Piscotty that summer, signing him to a minor league contract and assigning him to Triple-A Louisville. He spent the rest of the year with the Louisville Bats, electing free agency after the season.

Now a free agent once again, Piscotty is available for clubs that might need outfield depth at Triple-A. He’s no longer the hitter he was during his peak from 2015-18, but still just 32 years old, a team might be interested in taking him on as a fixer-upper project.

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