The Red Sox have designated outfielder Darnell McDonald for assignment, according to Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com (via Twitter). The move allows Boston to make room for Josh Beckett's activation.
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NICE!! 2 and a half years late, but better late than never as they say.
Now if someone will offer a 1 legged cripple in return? Boston won’t have to see this less than AAAA guy ever again!
Finally! Oh my goodness this is the best day ever.
Ha! The moment I read the headline, I thought of you and how happy you’d be. Can’t think of anyone who’s been banging on this guy more than you. With his departure, that leaves you with George, Manny and just a handful as whipping boys.
” With his departure, that leaves you with George, Manny and just a handful as whipping boys.”
Gotta’ have the old and reliable stand byes ya know. Those 2 will be immortal.
I know, right? It’s been long overdue.
About time. Good riddance!
What in the world are riddens?
I believe that’s the Scandinavian spelling of the English word “riddance.” It’s used frequently when commenters really want to show off their linguistic prowess.
best day of my life
I know that feel, this is a great step in the right direction
Lot of hate for a fourth outfielder who hit .252/.323/.413 and played solid defense at three positions for parts of three seasons. Stay classy, Internet commenters.
Yeah, I never got why RS Nation hated him so much.
I used to have a list of about 4 or 5 games last season that Darnell McDonald single-handedly lost the Red Sox with miscues.
But the good outweighed the bad, wouldn’t you say?
Under no circumstances would I say that
Did Darnell McDonald play all nine positions and pitch all nine innings that game? Because I’ve been watching baseball since I can remember and I don’t recall one instance of a player “single-handedly” losing a game that was impacted by anywhere from 9 to 17 of his teammates, plus the manager, umpires, etc.
I guess those games were also Francona’s fault for continuing to play Darnell McDonald, yeah.
In all fairness, the majority of those at bats were two years ago. For most of the past two seasons he’s been pretty bad. If he had speed I would say keep him, but like most posters here to me this is long overdue. I wish him well, seemed like a good team guy, just didn’t produce consistently enough, prototypical AAAA guy.
There was nothing solid about mcDonald’s defense. He was very adept at playing singles into XBH however and baserunning miscues as a PR.
This is the last of Francona’s “pets” gone, other than Pedey, who is valuable.. Hall is long gone.
^this, basically.
I’d invite you to watch a game or two. You’d understand after.
right, no one wanted him gone in 2010 when he played well. but half a good year filling in for an injured starter doesn’t earn you 2 years of leeway
since 2010, that line has been: .228/.305/.390 with unimpressive (though not awful) defense & baserunning
that on top of his consistent failure to perform in situations most fans care about most (negative WPA and clutch figures) is very reasonable grounds for the frustration seen here
Appeared to be a great guy and a good teammate, just too bad he wasn’t better at baseball I guess.
Darnell is far from a HOF player, but why all the hate? Ever see him not try as hard as he could, not do whatever asked of him, including pitching? I give you that his skills are diminishing both because of age and his lack of playing time, but to hate just for the sake of it…
You clearly don’t watch the games.
You should give him some of your participation ribbons!
If I played baseball for the red sox, I would try as hard as I could too, and pitch if they asked me.
Unfortunately that is not enough to keep a AAA outfielder or me on a big-league roster.
Darnell was the best clubhouse bench player there is. He’s constantly posting on twitter how he is eating the lunch with players, like Will Middlebrooks when he was first called up, he seems like a great guy, and a great team mate. No need to hate. He did everything asked of him and played a great season in LF 2 years ago which some might forget. I wish the best for Darnell and wish he could stay in the red sox organization or to a team that can offer more PT.
Now it doesn’t make sense. Red Sox are so Twitter friendly during broadcasts now… why would they get rid of their best twittering player?!
I’m outraged.
He blocked me on twitter 🙁
Being a nice clubhouse guy and teamate off of the field does not translate into helping out on the field.
Sweeney, Ells and CC will be coming back soon and right now Kalish is a FAR better defender at every OF position than he is, Lillibridge can play a little OF and Nava is a far better hitter and can play LF.
There is no place (on the field) for McDonald and look at Pawtucket even.. They have real prospects in Hassan, Linares and Lin who need the AB. Anderson needs more reps in LF and even Repco/Kroeger as guys just like mcDonald. Where does Mac fit there? No room and you don’t want to take any AB’s from the REAL prospects because he is a “good guy”, that’s not how you run a team, it’s how they fell apart last September being ran like that!
I agree man. Im just saying the first couple comments is more of a reply as to who i was talking too. Crazy to talk about players on the team they like to watch like that, let alone as a human being. I know he doesn’t fit in Boston right now but he is better than the triple A guys you mentioned. I don’t see Linares contributing on the Redsox ANY time soon, same goes for Hassan and Lin (Trade Bait) he’s just a very good defender with solid speed. I know they are prospects but McDonald can help out also or he wouldn’t have been on the team. Im pretty sure he was hitting .270 against lefties if I’m correct? He had a role and he was adequate doing that. I hope he latches on somewhere else and succeeds like he did his first year in Boston. He has the talent. But i agree with what you said completely, I was just throwing that out there as to what else he did for the tea, besides his playing ability. Just my thoughts.
Finally. I guess one season of half-decent ball parlayed into a one and a half year stay where he was only on the roster due to the fact that he is right handed.
THANK GOD.
I was so worried that they would stupidly do something else. This is so far overdue it is scary.
Those that use numbers (which by the way are mostly 2 years ago) have no idea just how bad he was here.
HOOORAY!!
I was having kind of a bad day, but now I’m just so happy.
He has the worst ERA in the division, about time!
The only appropriate response: sum up everything you find when you search for “danielbryanyes.gif”.
Why so happy? He’s useless on the field, especially compared to the rest of the team’s outfielders. Sure, he can be a great clubhouse guy, but you can’t keep him around because sooner or later, you’re going to have to play him. Maybe they could convince him to retire and take a coaching job or something to keep him around.
It was a good run DMC
I see what you did there
Most of you are showing that you don’t have much class yourselves, so how would you recognize it in DMac?
It’s possible, in case you didn’t know, to agree that yes, he’s clearly the right choice to be DFA’d now… but then also to thank him for always giving it his best shot, and wish him well wherever he ends up.
Want to hate on Theo, Tito, Ben, the front office, whoever you want to blame for keeping him on the roster so long? Got it. But what do you expect DMac should have done, yell “Yeah, I stink and I quit” and walk off the roster? Oh yeah, I’m sure any of you would do that in the same situation.
McD was a nice fill in. Nothing special and his days were certainly numbered. Talent wise I’m surprised he lasted this long.
He’ll be in Pawtucket soon and then back up to the big club in September.
Saw him hit a mammoth HR in Houston last year.
OK people lets settle down. DMac was a fun player to have in the clubhouse. and there was a good part of 2010 when he filled in nice. Even parts of this season he had a couple big hits. but i remember games where sox would rally and he would get picked off first or the game where he slid over the bag at 2nd to end the game. His daughter is hilarious and his wife is pretty cute but it had to be u darnell. it isn’t going to be nava/kalish/ross/sweeney/ or Scottie. I’m guessing the could of sent the new kid down but in the end it is what it is. great guy, ehh player.
I am going to go a different route here.
Good bye and good luck Darnell. Good luck to your daughter, who was thrust into the spotlight as a “reporter” for NESN, interrogating such clowns as Larry Lucchino just to be adorable. Good luck wherever you go.
i’d like to see the Astros scoop him up.
I wouldn’t mind if the Mariners gave him a shot. Hell, what do we have to lose?
Baseball games.
He was a highly regarded $1 million first round draft pick who chose baseball over being a big-time college RB. He never really developed and a few years later was no longer a prospect, simply AAA depth. He stuck around AAA for multiple clubs over 7 years without being given a chance, even as a reserve OF. He played his way onto the Reds and later the Red Sox as a 31 year-old and managed to stay on a MLB roster for much of the past 4 seasons. I’d say he did well for himself considering he got paid 15 years ago and had been stuck in AAA since he was 22 in 2001. To even stick around for another chance, when it seemed his was over in 2004 at the latest, and finally play a couple hundred games at the major league level and contribute in a variety of ways ( at various times he was the team’s goto sacrifice bunter, outfield assist leader, etc)- job well done. Yes, his level of contribution was not above the level of a marginal MLB player, but that’s because that’s what he was- a 5th OFer journeyman AAAA type. A marginal role-player like most professional athletes. If he were the second coming of Carl Yastremski he would have been starting for the Orioles a decade ago and he would have never come to Boston, unless they snagged him on a 9 figure free agent contract.