The Indians have designated outfielder Daniel Robertson for assignment, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets. His 40-man spot was needed for the just-acquired Jay Bruce.
Robertson, 31, has seen action in each of the past four MLB seasons — including a 32-game run this year in Cleveland. But he has never shown much with the bat, with a cumulative .262/.314/.328 slash over 386 trips to the plate.
Through 178 plate appearances at Triple-A on the year, Robertson is slashing .340/.407/.409 — reflective of his typical blend of excellent plate discipline and little pop. Robertson has also swiped quite a few bags as a professional, though he’s just 7-for-12 at Triple-A this year and has only successfully taken a bag in half of his dozen career attempts in the majors.
I hope he latches on somewhere as a bench player. He plays with a ton of passion, would be a nice fit for a young team looking for veteran leaders.
I’m sure he’s not going anywhere, he’ll clear and then stay at AAS.
This. Robertson is a great guy and I liked his effort, but I doubt there’s a team out there chomping at the bit to add a 31-year old outfielder with a limited big league track record. He’ll just stay with Columbus as depth.
Meant AAA not AAS :/
Next to go? Abraham Almonte.
Not going to Google it because I don’t actually care, but I believe Almonte has an option remaining. In that case I could at least envision him having trade value in the offseason as a 4th OF that can play all 3 positions and is a switch hitter. He’s not terrible, he’s just not good enough to be on a title contender’s 25.
Yes, Almonte does have an option for this year, but that might be it.
Is it completely unthinkable that he might be more valuable than Brandon Guyer?
I wouldn’t say that, because Guyer at least rakes against lefties (this year notwithstanding) and gets on base because he’s basically a ball magnet. I don’t dislike Almonte and I disagree that he should lose a 40-man spot, but he doesn’t do any one thing particularly well like Guyer does (which isn’t ideal in a bench bat).
I would agree with you as far as the overall player goes. The thing Guyer has in his advantage over Almonte is that he does one thing exceptionally well (mash lefties) whereas Almonte is merely OK at everything.
For a contender there’s more value in a player that can give you an edge in a particular category to be on your bench. Especially when your starters struggle in that facet.
Did you write basically the same thing as I did hahaha
I hope Almonte is next. After his PED suspension I wanted him gone, the icing on the cake was the game he blew the other day.
Exactly. Every game I’ve gone to since his suspension, I’ve booed the crap out of him. I’ll scream until I cough up a lung for any other tribe player, but Almonte disrespected the game
Wrong Daniel Roberts
*Robertson
A few months ago, there were Indians fans I follow on Twitter that believed Robertson should be on the roster over Austin Jackson; I always disagreed with it, but this kind of confirms it I guess (not to mention that Jackson has been really impressive this year)
Well that’s a no brainer, Jackson has been incredible this year.
Robertson has one of the best attitudes in baseball. He hustles on every play, he’s more than willing to take one for the team, and he’s always at the front of the dugout to greet every player who walks in.
Wish him well