The Royals have claimed outfielder Abraham Almonte off waivers from the Indians and designated right-hander Miguel Almonte for assignment, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Cleveland had designated the former of the two for assignment when setting its Opening Day roster.
Abraham Almonte, 28, was on the outside looking in of a jam-packed outfield mix in Cleveland. He’ll have a clearer path to playing time in Kansas City, where Jon Jay, Alex Gordon, Jorge Soler and Paulo Orlando comprise the primary outfield unit in the Majors in the wake of Jorge Bonifacio’s 80-game PED suspension. The switch-hitting Almonte had a strong half-season showing for the Tribe in 2015 but missed half the 2016 campaign due to an 80-game PED suspension and hit just .249/.304/.384 in 389 plate appearances from 2016-17.
As for Miguel Almonte, who’ll turn 25 on Wednesday, the hard-throwing righty has long ranked as one of the Royals’ top organizational prospects, but his star has faded in recent seasons. He’s tossed 10 2/3 innings in the Majors between 2015-17, but he’s yet to establish himself at the game’s top level. Injuries have played a massive role in stalling the younger Almonte’s development. Last season, he threw just two innings with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, and Flanagan tweets today that Almonte had been ticketed for the minor league disabled list to open the season due to posterior shoulder soreness.
Ha! The Royals can just give Miguel Almonte’s jersey to Abraham Almonte. Save some money.
LOL truee
I was thinking the same thing.
I don’t understand why we keep adding veterans when we 1) already don’t have enough at bats for everyone and 2) have no chance at competing.
Only thing worse than a rebuild is a half ass rebuild.
I really don’t understand this one – he had a very strong season in the minors last year and I thought this year would be the first year he got significant time in the bigs. Who knows maybe he’ll clear waivers.
This will undoubtedly lead to another move by Dayton Moore. It looks like to me he’s got to get rid of an outfielder. He either has to DFA someone, or trade someone. Paulo Orlando would be a candidate to be DFA ‘d. I highly doubt he found a creative way to get rid of Alex Gordon. He’s on the books for over 40 million the next two seasons, no one‘s going to take that contract and I would be shocked if David Glass would eat it.
No, they need to go for all the Almontes
What happened to Danny?
What happened to Zoilo?
Enjoy!
Indians fans are jumping for joy he is gone!
I’m definitely celebrating. Had KC not claimed him he would definitely ended up in Columbus and ultimately back to the Tribe when Chisenhall inevitably lands on the DL or Brantley heads back to the DL. The guy literally brought no value to the team the past 2 years and was just a body on the bench.
I don’t hate Almonte as much as other Indians fans, but Greg Allen has so much more value and upside as the next outfielder up than Almonte ever did
I don’t hate him, but his lack of production since his PED suspension made it impossible for me to love him. Allen and Naquin have much more upside.
Sometimes you feel like a nut.Sometimes you don’t.
I don’t know how to feel about this. Oh, wait, I do……….whew, finally!
Yup!!!!
It is a good day, indeed.
I’m surprised no one brought up them having same last names. No relation for claimed and DFA’d Almonte’s here.