The Rays have claimed outfielder Cesar Puello off waivers from the Angels, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports (on Twitter). The Angels designated Puello for assignment last Saturday.
The Rays organization will be the fifth for the 26-year-old Puello, who topped out at No. 77 among Baseball America’s 100 best prospects when he was with the Mets in 2010. Puello hasn’t been a factor in the majors, though he does own a quality .289/.379/.447 line with 49 stolen bases on 57 attempts in 1,039 Triple-A plate appearances. A significant amount of that damage has come this year in minor league stints with the Rangers and Halos, with whom Puello combined to slash .327/.377/.526 with 13 home runs and 18 steals on 22 tries in 379 PAs.
Puello, who made his big league debut and sole appearances with the Angels on Aug. 9 (and went 1 for 4 with two steals), is out of minor league options. As such, the Rays will either have to add the righty-swinging Puello to their 25-man roster or attempt to send him through waivers again. With Kevin Kiermaier, Steven Souza Jr., Corey Dickerson and Peter Bourjos, the Rays already seem to have a full complement of outfielders on hand at the big league level, which helped lead to a demotion for Mallex Smith on Friday.
I hope he gets a chance in the majors
Always liked him. Very toolsy- could very well be a solid 4th OF.
I agree. I dont know how many times AAAA player like Kirk Nieuwenhuis gets a ton of chances but Caesar cant even get a cup of coffee.
Its because he’s also likely a AAAA player.
But guys who were past top 100 prospects who had pretty decent minor league numbers usually get a little more of a shot than what puello has gotten in the bigs so far. He’s a 4th Ofer at best but it is surprising to see a guy like that not really get a call up to play a little in the bigs until after he’s 26 years old.
Unfortunately the Mets didn’t do him any favors. They gave him 1 season in AAA before they released him (despite a .950 OPS the year before in his first crack at AA). Even in that season in AAA he had 7 homers, 13 stolen bases and a .748 OPS despite being 3.6 years younger than the PCL average that season. Its not necessarily “spectacular” but by no means does it warrant release at the age of 24.
He would have cleared waivers (as he was out of options) and they could have called him up when they decided he had done enough in AAA, or just give him a cup of coffee in the majors. He couldn’t have been any worse than Eric Campbell
He also tested positive for PEDS shortly after putting up that 950 OPS in AA, had a disappointing season in an extreme hitters park/league and then missed the next year with an injury (which many in the organization suspected he exaggerated so he could continue collecting MLB pay).
Hopefully he can make himself a career, but a lot of this he brought on himself.
Biogenesis scandal played a part of him being shuffled around between organizations after his 50 game suspension, I would guess. Maybe people didn’t believe his pre-suspension numbers were sustainable.