Astros Outright Chacin, Byrdak; Sign Corporan
MONDAY, 10:31am: The Astros have released Byrdak, tweets Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
WEDNESDAY, 1:26pm: The Astros outrighted Tim Byrdak, Gustavo Chacin and Matt Nevarez off of the 40-man roster, according to a team press release. Byrdak and Chacin were both arbitration eligible, but MLBTR had identified them as non-tender candidates earlier in the month. Nevarez will be assigned to the Astros’ Triple-A Oklahoma City roster; Byrdak and Chacin can become free agents.
Byrdak, a 37-year-old lefty, posted a 3.49 ERA in 64 relief appearances (38 2/3 innings) with 6.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. Chacin, also a left-hander, posted a 4.70 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 38 1/3 innings of work. It was his first appearance in the major leagues since 2007, when he was still with the Blue Jays.
The team also signed catcher Carlos Corporan to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training. The 26-year-old has just one major league plate appearance to his name (he singled), but he has a .251/.306/.377 line in over 2,000 minor league plate appearances.
Odds & Ends: De La Rosa, Halladay, Astros, Molina
Let's round up the last of the leftover links from the work week….
- MLB.com's Thomas Harding shares a few Rockies notes from Spring Training. According to Harding, 2011 free agent Jorge de la Rosa would like to stay in Colorado beyond this season.
- After watching Roy Halladay dominate the AL East for years, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark is eager to see what the Phillies' new ace is capable of in the Senior Circuit.
- Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that the Astros agreed to terms with three Minor Leaguers on their 40-man roster today: infielder Jose Vallejo and right-handers Matt Nevarez and Henry Villar. The trio signed one-year contracts with corresponding Major League values of $400K.
- Bruce Bochy's plan to give Bengie Molina a few more days off this season could hurt Molina financially, according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. Molina has multiple games-started incentives in his contract, and will not maximize his earnings if he starts fewer than 115 times.
- GM Alex Anthopoulos wants to focus on speed, athleticism, and strong baserunning throughout the Blue Jays' organization, writes MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
- Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post says that the Marlins are optimistic about their chances in 2010, despite being the only team not to sign a Major League free agent this winter.
- Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball updates his arbitration scorecard following Jeff Mathis' win over the Angels. The only remaining arbitration case is Ryan Theriot's.