April 26th: Slater has cleared waivers and elected free agency, per Mish.
April 23rd: The Marlins made the Slater and Ruiz moves official today.
April 22nd: The Marlins are designating veteran outfielder Austin Slater for assignment, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid. Esteury Ruiz has played four Triple-A games on a minor league rehab stint and will be activated for Friday’s series opener in San Francisco. Miami’s 40-man roster count will drop to 39.
Slater signed a $1MM free agent contract at the end of Spring Training. He had been in camp on a minor league deal with Detroit but didn’t crack their roster. The Fish wanted a righty-hitting platoon outfielder with Ruiz shelved by an oblique strain and starting left fielder Kyle Stowers down with a hamstring strain. Stowers returned over the weekend, and Ruiz’s forthcoming return pushes Slater off the roster.
It wasn’t a great showing for the 33-year-old Slater. He played in 12 games and collected just four hits, all of them singles. He took four walks but struck out nine times in 28 plate appearances. Slater has pinch hit a few times but hasn’t been in Clayton McCullough’s starting lineup since April 12. Heriberto Hernández gets some work as a righty-hitting left fielder. Utilityman Javier Sanoja can also play out there.
Ruiz, an offseason trade pickup from the Dodgers, adds a speed element off the bench. He hasn’t hit much in the big leagues but raked in Triple-A last year. Ruiz stole 67 bases for the A’s back in 2023, his only full season at the MLB level.
Miami has five days to trade Slater or place him on waivers. He has sufficient service time to decline an outright assignment and seems likely to be released.
that 2021 Giants team is fascinating.
He was a Slater boy, they said see you later boy
Hey, maybe a return to the Bronx is in the offing. He can’t be any worse than Randall Grichuk has been.
No thanks; easy pass on Slater. I heard the Muts have interest in him though.
Saw this coming. Probably when Morel comes back, Graham Pauley will be sent down.
Marlins getting healthier, so the numbers game begins for some of these fringe guys.
Easy million bucks!
Doesn’t seems like it. Craig Mish reported that the contract will only pay him the prorated portion of it until today. That is absolutely a no surprise given the level of frugality of this ownership.
Dang too bad! Thanks for the correction.
Minor league deal for AAA depth with the Tigers or someone else.
Slater struck me as a panic purchase when the deal was done. If a “temporary” contract is legal, I can see the logic of Slater accepting it. A month of good money and a chance to shop window himself. The last bit didn’t work out, he looked even worse than his numbers.
I’m not sure he could get a job in the Mexican Summer League
Slater Gone, Iron Mater next?
They need to let Caissie play every day and stop taking him out for a pinch hitter when a lefty is in.
A cool million for nada, plus he got to play in his 10th season. Austin needs to go to the minors somewhere and get his swing back. I think he can still potentially help a team later in the season.