Earlier today, the Braves shipped third baseman Chris Johnson to the Indians for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. Atlanta had long been said to be shopping Johnson, who expressed relief to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter link) that his status was finally resolved. Meanwhile, Swisher indicated that he, too, is excited to get started “right away” with a new organization, as Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer tweets.
- Top Braves prospect Ozhaino Albies will miss the rest of the season after breaking his thumb, Bowman tweets. The 18-year-old shortstop has been solid this year at the Class A level, slashing .310/.368/.404 with 29 steals. While he’ll lose a bit of development time, the injury doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern given his young age.
- After dealing Mike Napoli to the Rangers, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said today that he “expects there will be another opportunity” for Allen Craig at the big league level this year, as Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald tweets. It’s not yet clear when that will occur, but Craig isn’t exactly knocking on the door. He’s slashed .274/.379/.341 over 298 plate appearances at Triple-A since his demotion, continuing a notable power outage that dates back to the start of 2014.
- Marlins sources say that GM-turned-skipper Dan Jennings is expected to return to the club’s front office after the year, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. If and when the club enters the managerial market, says Jackson, it could consider names like Mike Lowell, Bud Black, Dusty Baker, Terry Kennedy, and Doug Mientkiewicz.
- While Mychal Givens was strong in his first few outings with the Orioles, the club is demoting him to provide another shot to Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia, as Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com writes. Garcia, 22, is back from an extended DL stint after allowing nine earned runs (and eight strikeouts against 11 walks) in his first 13 2/3 innings with Baltimore. In spite of those difficulties, the club seems fairly committed to locking up Garcia’s future rights by keeping him on the active roster the rest of the way.
I really do not want to see Allen Craig again. If he was lighting up AAA, then I’d be fine with it, but his power stroke has never returned even against weaker pitching.
Also, it is kinda funny to see Jennings going back to a front office job after this year. I guess I don’t really see the point in them making him the manager with that being the intent, unless they wanted to get a more hands-on look in the dugout. I still don’t think they had to do that by making their GM the Skipper though.
Couldn’t we just see more Travis Shaw instead? I’m sure he’s nothing special but you have to think he’d slug over .341.
Please use another word other than slashed to describe hit to spice it up. The thesaurus has plenty of them, especially in any post that has the words DFA or Designated in it. Use your search function and you will see what I mean.
Good luck Dusty Baker! I bet the reds wish they had kept you around. Playoffs 3 out of 4 years then you’re fired. Look at them now.
Craig’s power hasn’t been there since 2012. He was aided by a .368 BABIP in 2013 and a ridiculous BA w/ RISP that hid the real Allen Craig from us. It’s really a shame how he just fell apart.
He still hit 35 2B and 22 HRs in just 119 games in 2012 and another 29 and 13 respectively in 2013 before he missed the last two months (other than his brief return in the World Series). It was probably the wrist injury that did him in. It’s a real shame, as he was once a very talented hitter despite his relatively advanced age once he finally reached the big leagues.
At least he’ll always be remembered as one of the best National League World Series DHs (well, not technically the DH, but the fill-in from the bench) of all time. He was probably the tertiary MVP to David Freese and Chris Carpenter in that 2011 Classic.
Makes sense. Expensive short term contract shipped out so expensive longer term dead money contract can be aired out again to see if there’s any value.