The Blue Jays have designated outfielder Anthony Alford for assignment, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
A former football standout, Alford joined the Blue Jays as a third-round pick in 2012 and became a prospect of note across the majors within a few years. He ranked as a top 100 farmhand in each year from 2016-18, owing in part to impressive production at the minors’ lower levels. In the last of those years, Baseball America wrote that Alford’s “ability to get on base and play plus defense at a premium position give him the potential to be an above-average regular.”
Despite the promise he showed in his younger days, MLB opportunities have been hard to come by for the 26-year-old Alford. So far, he has amassed just 75 big league plate appearances, including 16 this season, and batted .155/.200/.254 (18 wRC+) with two home runs, five steals and a 40 percent strikeout rate. Meanwhile, Alford’s numbers have been uninspiring in Triple-A, where he has taken 749 plate appearances and hit .250/.326/.374 with 12 homers and 39 steals on 54 attempts.
Toronto will now have a week to trade, release or pass Alford through waivers. Alford has no minor league options remaining, so any team that acquires him would have to sneak him through waivers if it were to send him to its alternate site.
St Louis or the Giants make a trade for him.
Make a trade? Offer a few scuffed balls and cracked bats? You should mean claim him when he inevitably goes on waivers.
No I mean make a trade.
You can trade cash.
You can trade a PTBNL.
I knew what I meant. Thanks though.
I have a feeling “player to be named later” or “cash considerations” are about to be on the move again.
To Pittsburgh?
Hate to see this, Jays never really gave him a chance to get at bats this year -They bring up McKinney who has done Zip and expose Alfred- This makes no sense.
With Alfred’s speed on the bases someone will certainly make a claim. Wish him all the best.
Alford kept getting hurt. I think if he stayed healthy he would have been a regular
He didn’t get at bats because he did not prove himself worthy of at bats with his output in the minors. Plus he suffered some injuries. Would I have let him go? No. I would have dropped Panik.
What is wrong with you. Panik has been great
Define “great” for us. Please. A minus point 3 WAR? His .385 OPS? What is this great you are talking about??
It does seem odd they would drop him instead of just sending McKinney back down. Especially with expanded rosters and the added value of a win in this short season. Though he added enough value as a pinch runner to be kept this year.
His speed and defensive play will get him picked up by someone. Seems like a Royals type of player to me.
They probably don’t believe he will stick with the team through the roster cuts. Remember, rosters will be reduced by the end of the season. Personally, I think he has some good value (pinch running, def replacement) as of now, due to the extra innings format (similar to Pompey in 2015). I would have DFA Drury, but they love his defensive versatility, considering we are loaded in the farm with middle infielders and pretty barren of outfielders.
Do you think its too late for Alford to get back into football?
Not saying he can’t be big league ball player but he has a lot of trouble staying healthy and trouble hitting.
Like seriously its not out of this would for a player his age to make it to the NFL. Brandon Weeden was 28 when he got drafted in the first round.
I dunno never too late for a career change Anthony
If the XFL comes back, that might be a good way to give football another shot.
im sure the Rock would lobby his owners for it for the headlines.
Maybe if Alford got an opportunity (20+ continues games) we might have seen what he was. Instead we continue to watch Drury, with his 100 batting average, run out there everyday. Every other team in the league would have released Drury by now. Average/slightly above in some places defense does not warrant an everyday job regardless of Bichette’s injury.
Drury is awful.
I would have dropped Panik. I would also start the process of finding a team willing to make a deal for Teoscar Hernandez. He’s hitting very well. He is also quite possibly the worst OF I’ve ever seen, and there have been some bad ones. A deal while he is hitting well could bring back an adequate return. Nothing substantial unless they package him to Cleveland in a blockbuster for Plesac and/or Clevinger.
Panik can hit and has proven it in the past..Drury has never hit. Also Panik can play one day and sit for couple but for some reason Drury gets to play EVERYDAY. which takes at bats away from others like he did Guerrero jr last year.
First off, Panik can’t hit.
Second, you are correct. Drury should only be playing if someone cannot physically make it out of bed to the ballpark. Drury is terrible. The only reason Drury is still on the roster is because he is a RH bat, and a bad one at that. That is it. With Espinal on the team AND more capable of playing SS, I’d drop Drury the second Bichette is back.
Drury hit in Arizona, but i think the vision issue he had after leaving lingers, because he’s just fallen off a hill.
Yea no thanks to either of them. Last thing we need is selfish immaturity in a clubhouse full of young players.
If the Blue Jays leadership can’t steer them in the right direction then they should not be leading. They are talents. There are immature players in every clubhouse. Clevinger and Plesac would put the Blue Jays into contention, and I bet Cleveland wouldn’t ask for that much if it was for just one of them. But feel free to continue your mediocre mentality. Jay fans are used to 3rd or 4th place.
Hard to believe how high his value was back in the day. Hindsight’s 20/20 but these “toolsy” guys always kind of scare me, he probably could have headlined a nice package in a trade.
Right? He was one of the few prospects we kept after the AA spending spree in 2015. We had Alford, SWR and Vlad Left (thank god vlad was ineligible for a trade that year). But we definitely could’ve used Alford and SWR for a shutdown reliever or 2nd basemen for that playoff run. I think if Toronto acquires Zobrist in 2015, they might win the World Series.
Alford needed to be traded in 2016 when he was the #1 ranked prospect in the system. Needed a bat better than Upton or Smoak for that playoff run. Not sure if Zobrist puts the Jays over the top in 2015. Had Bautista taken control of that fly ball in Game 2 it’s a different series.
2016 the new FO was apparently upset with the state in which AA left the farm, so their solution was not trading any prospects, even though the AL was weak and we were a contender. But I don’t know if there is any move to make in 2016 either, that gets us past Andrew Miller and those Indians. Honestly, I think we beat the Royals in 2015 if Cecil doesn’t get injured vs Texas, he was on a historic run as a reliever leading up to that injury. I believe he set the record for # of appearances without an ER. That Royals team was just pesky, IMO the Jays were superior in every way other then backend bullpen.
Cleveland scored 12 runs in 5 games including 4 runs total the first two games going up 2-0. Andrew Miller or not the Blue Jays couldn’t score against anyone else. Had to Jays taken a lead or two the first 3 games it wouldn’t have mattered if and when Miller pitched.
The bats were not clicking the second half of 2016 and they lost the division because of it. They needed to dangle Alford and boost the hitting. The pitching was good enough that year. More than good enough.
You’re right. We definitely could’ve used some offense in 2016 run. I didn’t like how we were stymied by Clevinger and Tomlin, Clevinger was a rookie who didn’t breakout until the following season and I thought Tomlin would get lit up for sure. I have a move that would’ve satisfied both our 2015 and 2016 needs. Acquire JD Martinez with David Price in 2015, would’ve been the perfect move.
Yep. Cleveland beat the Jays with their ace, number 5 and number 6 starters with Bauer carrying 9.5 fingers. And the Jays still lost.
I just realized I put SWR, I meant SRF. Lol
SWR would’ve been like 14 back then lmao
Very funny. I didn’t catch it either but I knew what you meant.
I might’ve dropped Alford in some other scenario, but certainly not for the sake of putting Billy McKinney on the roster. Not only has McKinney never showed any bat potential (and lacks Alford’s pinch runner ability and plays lesser defense and doesn’t have any of Alford’s athletic tools and has had far longer to develop his maximum potential), but McKinney also has options so they wouldn’t have been losing him. He gets one hit and suddenly it’s worth losing someone to keep him on the roster?
As for Joe Panik, he’s arguably acceptable for a team that needs a backup second baseman. Pretending that he’s a shortstop (or outfielder) is a joke, though — it’d be fine to hit like he historically does as a glove-first player, but he doesn’t have the range or arm to play short. Espinal is clearly a superior option with the glove, and Drury has more power as a washed up veteran option at all of his positions.
In the offseason, I hoped the Jays would use the first three months of the 2020 season to give reps to Alford and other fringe players, then purge the washouts from the active roster before the trade deadline. In the shortened season with expanded rosters, I thought Alford still had a role as the primary pinch runner, especially to put on 2B in extra innings. It’s a very limited role, but important under the current rules. Every playoff team will want at least one burner on their bench.
This is not a really big loss for Toronto. People fell in love with him because he is a great athlete. The problem is that he’s just not that good of a baseball player. He has the ceiling of a 4th or 5th OF who could be used to steal a base late in a game or as a defensive replacement late in a game as well. Such a shame he could never develop in game power. He is certainly big enough and strong enough to hit 25+ per year but his hit tool never developed to that point. Have to wonder if he should have gone the football route instead. He’s the mirror opposite of Tim Tebow ;-).
We really don’t know if it is or not a big loss. He actually had a very high ceiling of a 5 tool outfielder but injuries (in past years) and lack of opportunity (in recent years) has limited his ability to show anybody what he can or can not do. If you compare his opportunities, which were short, spaced out by days and or weeks in the minors or on the bench, and compare that to guys like Brandon Drury, Sacraties Brito, Derek Fisher, Lourdes Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez, to name but a few, it becomes hard to say if he is a bust like Drury, Briito and Fisher or has potential like Gurriel and Hernandez.
Define lack of opportunities. Over 700 plate appearances in the minors to produce an under .250 ave is not lack of opportunities. He’s hit under .190 in the majors. He’s essentially Billy Hamilton with more power, less contact and speed.
You would think it was obvious I was referring to major league opportunities. There have been many many examples of players who did not do well at AAA but went on to have decent major league careers. Also his minor league opportunities were marred by injuries and inconsistent playing time. Those 669 at bats at AAA were over 3 seasons and multiple injuries/rehab.where he batted 277 with 737 OPS so not great but not enough to write him off and not give an opportunity in the majors to a prospect with a high ceiling..
Even Billy Hamilton got multiple opportunities.
Gosh… always sucks to have to do this to a “top prospect” cause you always hold on to that hope that it will eventually click
I’ll trade you a Carson Fulmer for your Anthony Alford.
I mean Derek Fisher still hs a job so maybe they should cut that lame ass before people with former potential/athletic talent. Fisher couldn’t even succeed in a cheating clubhouse like Houston. As mentioned above Alford never got a chance after AA left town and injuries slowed his progress worse.
Did you ever even look at their minor league numbers or did you just read their prospect profiles? Fishers number in the minors are far better then Alfords. Fisher, was playing quite well before he landed on IL .250/.400/.500 granted only in 14 AB. Also, why would we want a guy who “succeeded” in the Trashstros clubhouse, btw he was a rookie with little to no say in clubhouse activities. Fisher is also a lefty hitter, something the Jays lack in the OF with the exception of Billy McKinney.