Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.
- The Giants have outrighted outfielders Justin Maxwell and Ryan Lollis to Triple-A Sacramento, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. They had designated both for assignment last week. The veteran Maxwell is a solid defender but a somewhat light hitter who batted .209/.275/.341 in 274 plate appearances in the big leagues this year. It’s unclear whether he’ll accept the Giants’ assignment. The 28-year-old Lollis has had a breakout season in the minors, batting .325/.377/.459 in 299 plate appearances for Sacramento, but he had a somewhat sketchy track record before that and only has 13 plate appearances’ worth of big-league experience.
- The Cubs have released veteran reliever Rafael Soriano, MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat tweets. They had designated him for assignment in a flurry of roster moves last Tuesday. Soriano, 35, did not sign until June and then pitched only 5 2/3 innings for Chicago, allowing four runs before hitting the DL with shoulder trouble. Soriano has a 2.89 ERA, 9.1 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 14 seasons also spent with the Mariners, Braves, Rays, Yankees and Nationals.
- The Rays have outrighted infielder Hak-Ju Lee to Triple-A Durham, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Lee, a former top prospect and a key part of the 2011 Matt Garza trade between the Rays and Cubs, has struggled to hit at Durham in recent seasons, posting a .220/.303/.304 line in 360 plate appearances there in 2015. (Of course, the Rays still did just fine in that deal, also getting Chris Archer and Brandon Guyer.) The Rays designated him for assignment on Tuesday.
- The Orioles have selected the contract of veteran outfielder Nolan Reimold, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. The Orioles outrighted Reimold last week, but as Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun tweets, Reimold accepted the outright after the Orioles told him they would promote him this month. As Kubatko points out, the righty might prove useful as the O’s face two lefties (David Price and Mark Buehrle) this weekend. He’s hit .227/.306/.340 in 108 plate appearances with Baltimore this season.
Pretty fascinating how Hak Ju Lee was the centerpiece of that Garza deal and that deal still looks amazing for the Rays because they also got a young pitcher with upside named Chris Archer
Yes, thanks. That’s a valuable bit of context that I probably should have included in the first place.
Hak Ju Lee will generate interest on the minor league free agent market. He’s still shockingly young.
Like Donaldson of the Blue Jays The Old Cubs would trade there youth and later they become Good I would like Theo to being this little bird home. ( Hak hi Lee)
These old/fringy/injured, or just one of the prior need to figure out that trying to squeeze a couple extra bucks from a potential team ain’t worth it to get any job available when the season is over. Bull pen jobs get filled and mid-late 30’s relievers, with fast declining velocity that think that are still worth 5-10m just ain’t going to get it. Soriano flat out blew it, nearly did the prior time he was a FA, until the Nat’s bailed him out. Another guy who made a habit of shopping around for that extra few change in his pocket was Shaky Gonzalez and hit cost him dearly.
Old relievers just need to stop that and take that 1-3m deal.. It’s a job and now both Shaky and Soriano are gone, while solid vets like Qualls, Beimel, Hawkins..
Those 3 could go on and on, or until they go sour (like Beimel did a few seasons), or retire, like Hawkins is supposed to do after the year, at the age of 43.