Infielder Dixon Machado went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento by the Giants, tweets Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News. The Giants designated Machado for assignment just a week after acquiring him from the Cubs in a minor swap that sent 30-year-old righty Raynel Espinal to Chicago. Machado’s acquisition helped the Giants to patch a brief infield need with Thairo Estrada in concussion protocol and veterans Brandon Crawford (knee inflammation) and Evan Longoria (minor oblique strain) all on the injured list. That trio has since been reinstated, pushing Machado from the roster.
It’s uncommon to see a team give up a player in move designed as only a short-term stopgap, but Espinal is a 30-year-old right-hander who’d signed as a minor league free agent, pitched to a 5.29 ERA with San Francisco’s top affiliate in Sacramento, and can again become a minor league free agent at season’s end. Viewed through that lens, the Giants didn’t exactly surrender any potential long-term value in the swap, which will simply provide the Cubs with a bit of rotation depth in the final couple months.
Machado, also 30, appeared in five games and took 17 plate appearances with the Giants, hitting .200/.294/.200 in that tiny sample. He’s had a nice season in the upper minors, batting .312/.402/.394 in 391 plate appearances during his first season back in North American ball after a nice showing in the Korea Baseball Organization. Machado spent the 2020-21 campaigns with the KBO’s Lotte Giants and turned in a .280/.359/.393 in 1095 plate appearances. His power and prowess on the basepaths both faded in his second KBO season, but Machado posted nearly identical batting averages (.280, .281) and on-base percentages (.356, .361) in two otherwise consistent seasons abroad.
Because he’s been outrighted in the past, Machado will have the opportunity to reject this assignment in favor of free agency. There’s been no indication to this point that he plans to do so, however. Assuming he indeed sticks with the Giants for the remainder of the season, he’ll give them some depth behind veterans Longoria, Crawford, Estrada, Wilmer Flores and Tommy La Stella over the final couple months. He can again be a free agent at season’s end.
How do fringe players get paid? League Min / 162 x games played?
Has to be a tough way to budget life / family / expenses on the cusp like that…
It’s all at-will so I know they bring it upon themselves but a rollercoaster nonetheless.
Unrelated: is there a reason so many minor leaguers are getting cut today? I counted about 150 released by 16 teams reported by @tombaseball29 (an account that is dedicated to tracking milb transactions on Twitter), and that might still be growing. For all these teams to be doing this at once must mean there’s some sort of deadline or something, right?
I think it has to do with the signing of the draft class and making room to get them into games. There could be other reasons though.
Correct
How does these cusp players get paid? League min / 162 x games on roster?
I know it’s at will and they make more than a C lot of people but had to be tough to manage finances / life / logistics on this rollercoaster.
If you take all the released players and put them on a team, they’d still finish first in the NL central
That’s why baseball needs to dump the division winner nonsense. Tired of garbage teams making it into the playoffs with a weak record while other teams with better records either lose out or are regulated to the wild card. If the playoffs started today, the Cards would be the 3rd seed when they should be the 3rd wild care spot.
This is how it should be seeded:
LAD
NYM
SDP
ATL
PHI
STL
Instead, ATL loses out on that 4rd spot and SDP end up being the 3rd wild card team.
Agreed.
Might as well just get rid of divisions then… while we’re at it; with the universal DH now, we might as well get rid of the American and National Leagues and just put the teams with the top 8-10 records in the playoffs.
That’s be fine as well.
Here’s the playoffs as of today:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. New York Mets
3. Houston Astros
4. New York Yankees
5. Atlanta Braves
6. Philadelphia Phillies
7. St. Louis Cardinals
8. San Diego Padres
9. Toronto Blue Jays
10. Milwaukee Brewers
11. Seattle Mariners
12. Tampa Bay Rays
Think we still need 12 playoff teams with no divisions and a schedule that would be more balanced? 1/3 of the teams is pushing it for me in this scenario… 12 feels overboard. Then again Manfred would push for 16… so fair is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Trying to make the playoff seeding “fair” is a fools game; there will always be complaints. All eliminating divisions does is take away some of the sports flavor and decrease local rivalries.
@elmedius
I’m only using the current system. I would prefer if they eliminated all the playoff nonsense and went back to the top two teams playing for the championship.
Next year, a team will play each team within division 14 games (down from the current 19) and every team in interleague play. That should help with the competitive balance yet keep regional rivalries intact.
@Cosmo2
How’s that rivalry with the Miami Marlins? Or the Nationals? Pretty boring… Plus, rivalries can happen all the time. Why don’t we have more games between NYY & HOU? That’s a good one but apparently, we only get 6 in total for the season because they’re not in the same division. Oh well… How’s that Mets-PHI rivalry doing this year? The last real notable thing was back in 2015.
Dump the divisions and allow rivalries to develop naturally.
@DonnyElementary
Yes, this was needed. It will allow fans to actually see players that they might not see each year.
Regional rivalries add extra flavor and excitement. You can’t judge something that covers decades according to todays standings. Yes other rivalries develop but there’s much less chance of that if the game isn’t broken into divisions, regional or otherwise.
There would be much more opportunity as teams would have more chance to play them. Really, does it benefit MLB when HOU-NYY only play each other 6 times out of 162? Does it benefit MLB when TOR-BAL play each other 19 times? How does playing the regional rivals that are not really rivals in the natural sense as would be BOS-NYY really benefit? Are the stands packed when TBR host the O’s? No one is going to those games.
It’s all a matter of opinion. No right answer in this. As for packed stadiums: do you have actual stats on this, otherwise there’s no point there, it all depends on what teams are winning when anyway.
Can this team freaking DFA Tyler Rodgers
He scares me every time he comes into a game. The gimmick isn’t working anymore.
think its time for Dixon to start applying at the local walmart
Espinal is rotation depth? Don’t think so. Haven’t even heard of his placement anywhere in the system & for sure is not on the 40-man roster.
how can farhan justify giving this guy ABs i mean really
He was a cheap, temporary fill-in when both Crawford and Estrada were on the IL. Without better disposable options available, which is what Machado was, the only other thing FZ could have done was start Luciano’s play clock, when he obviously isn’t ready. What do you suggest FZ should have done otherwise?