The latest players to be outrighted off 40-man rosters:
- The Indians outrighted Trevor Crowe off of their 40-man roster, according to the team. Crowe, who appeared in 15 games for the Indians in 2011, cannot elect free agency
- The Rangers outrighted pitchers Omar Beltre, Merkin Valdez and Eric Hurley and infielders Andres Blanco and Esteban German off of the 40-man roster, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. Blanco, who would have been arbitration eligible, projected to earn $500K through arbitration. He posted a .605 OPS in 82 plate appearances as a utility player and was the only one of the outrighted players to pick up significant playing time in 2011.
- The Mariners outrighted infielder Luis Rodriguez, tweets Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. I named Rodriguez and David Aardsma as the Mariners' primary non-tender candidates back in September, and now both are off the 40-man roster, which stands at 36. Rodriguez has elected free agency, reports MLB.com's Greg Johns.
- The Braves outrighted catcher J.C. Boscan, reliever Stephen Marek, outfielder Wilkin Ramirez, and outfielder Antoan Richardson to Triple-A Gwinnett, tweets MLB.com's Mark Bowman. Meanwhile, starter Todd Redmond's contract was selected. Marek had Tommy John surgery in May; he was obtained from the Angels with Casey Kotchman for Mark Teixeira at the '08 trade deadline. I thought at the time that the Braves' return topped the value of a couple of draft picks. That hasn't been true if you look at who the Angels took with their two Teixeira picks: top prospect Mike Trout and lefty Tyler Skaggs, a main component in the Dan Haren trade.
Glad to see the Braves doing it right as always. I remember this year hoping they’d give Wilkin a shot based on that spring training performance.
What does it mean to have a contract be “selected?”
means they added him to the 40-man roster.
As the two above me have said, it means he’s been added to the 40-man. He was set to be a minor league free agent this year, so while I’m sure it’s nice for him to start collecting a bigger paycheck, he probably would’ve been better off going somewhere that didn’t have all the pitching depth the Braves have.
Regardless though, good for him.
glad to have received trout and, eventually, haren.
Man, Tex screwed the Braves 6 ways from Sunday. Look at the list of players the Braves missed out on by either obtaining Tex or trading him (to LAA) and not receiving (2) comp picks when he signed with NYY: SS Elvis Andrus, RP Neftali Feliz, SP Matt Harrison, C Jared Saltalamacchia, RP Beau Jones (hasn’t made MLB debut), OF Mike Trout, and Tyler Skaggs. That’s the healthy core of a franchise right there for the next half-decade. Yes, teams take chances to go after impact bats that can drive them into/through the playoffs, but it’s always fun (read: depressing) to look at how great a risk those risks were after the fact. The Teixeira deal was abysmal, on almost all accounts. Yes, we did get about a year’s benefit of him, but no playoffs and no players from his services 5 years after we got him? That’s on Schuerholz.
The deal definitely bothers me to the core… what a nightmare. Andrus is a top SS in the league, and what a ridiculous bullpen it would have been with Feliz added to it. I get so bitter just thinking about what could have been, for the little that we received.
For all the talent Schuerholz lured to ATL, it’s funny that so many Braves fans forget the core of players we gave under the whole win-now mantra. Add to that list Adam Wainwright, our 1st rd selection for JD Drew’s rental and you can see how we have a history of doing this, or Schuerholz rather has a history of doing this. Considering how dire we are in need of an ace (Hudson and Hanson are either too old and too much of an injury-risk to be considered that in today’s rotation), Wainwright’s departure to me is the tipping point.
J.D. Drew put up 8.9 WAR that season with the Braves and got them into the playoffs. You can look at Wainwright now and say the Cards won, but an 8.9 WAR player for a season is exactly what you’re looking for when you make a deal like that.
Agree. The “win-now” mantra is just so wrong for the Braves. Teams with limited budgets can’t afford to operate like that. Thankfully, Frank Wren seems to get that. I was extremely relieved when he refused to give up a top pitching prospect to a division rival for Carlos Beltran.
what is ridiculous about this is assuming the braves would have picked Trout with that same pick.
Saying Braves = Trout is an incredibly stupid statement. Yes, he was taken with that pick. 23 players were taken before him. The Angels had the pick prior. Maybe if they don’t get the extra pick, they take Trout the pick before instead of Randall Grichuk, who is clearly blistering the prospect trail at High-A ball for another organization. Maybe the Braves select someone else.
Fact is, 22 teams (one team twice) missed on Trout for other picks, and there’s no way of knowing who the Braves might have taken with that pick. Same goes for Skaggs, on a lesser level.
As for the others, Harrison has had one, count it one, good season and would have probably left the organization before he had it, thanks in part to all that’s gone right with Braves pitching. Saltalamacchia is about the same, with even less success. Escobar would have negated the need for Andrus, and would have been kept around if he’d actually have tried to not piss off every coach, manager, and front office member of the organization. Feliz, obviously, could have been a boon and may be a starter today. At the least, a very nice bullpen piece…
This is precisely why looking at trades in hindsight is a futile endeavor. For every Teixeira, and for every Wainwright, there is a John Smoltz, Jair Jurrjens, Fred McGriff, Omar Infante, Arodys Vizcaino (and, conversely, Melky Cabrera), Tim Hudson, 8.9 WAR J.D. Drew, etc.
For Teixeira, the Braves received a guy that was ranked in BA’s top 25 four times, that had put up an .840 OPS in his first full season. He didn’t work out. Neither did Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott, Mel Nieves, and countless players that the Braves traded away for a team going for a title. How’d Edgar Renteria work out for the Tigers??
-C
Agree with you on most everything, but I think it’s worth pointing out that the organization probably would’ve felt less urgency to patch up it’s crippled rotation with both the Kawakami and Lowe signings (probably still would’ve signed lowe) if Harrison had filled in. That season our rotation was decimated by injuries (that lead to Lowe and Kawakami) was Harrison’s first year in the bigs. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they prbably would not have given Kawakami (a pitcher with zero MLB experience) a three year deal if Harrison’s on the team and MLB-ready. All speculation of course.
Maybe, maybe not. The Rangers basically fast-tracked Harrison to the majors as soon as they acquired him, which is the same thing the Braves had just done with Reyes, which failed. The Braves had just watched several prospects fail at the big level level in the years prior to that move. Having Harrison struggle (which is likely, it’s not like he came out a 4 WAR pitcher as a rookie) wouldn’t have changed much. I think it probably goes the exact same way…they needed experience and competence, which is what they bought.
Like it or not, both of those FA moves weren’t utter blunders. They just didn’t work out as well as they hoped.
-C
Does anybody remember Makay McBride?
Pretty big fall from grace for good old Esteban German. From key World Series AB to outrighted in the span of two weeks.