Aug. 28: Toro went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Las Vegas, the A’s announced.
Aug. 27: The Athletics announced that they have reinstated infielder Jacob Wilson from the 10-day injured list and recalled infielder Armando Alvarez. They had optioned infielder Darell Hernaiz after last night’s game, opening one roster spot. They opened another by designating infielder Abraham Toro for assignment.
Toro, 27, was acquire from the Brewers in November, just prior to the non-tender deadline. Presumably, the Brewers were considering cutting him loose but the A’s were willing to give him a shot and sent minor league pitcher Chad Patrick the other way.
For a while, it looked like a shrewd pickup for Oakland. Toro and the A’s agreed to a salary of $1.275MM for this year, not far above the $740K league minimum, and he came with two extra years of potential club control as well. Through the end of May, he was hitting .288/.332/.429 for a wRC+ of 118 while bouncing around to all the non-shortstop infield positions as well as the outfield corners.
But things have fallen off dramatically since then, as Toro is hitting .160/.228/.216 since the start of June. Perhaps the A’s had some hope of flipping him in a deadline trade, but that was complicated by the fact that he was on the injured list from June 22 to July 21 due to a strained left hamstring and wasn’t hitting much around that IL stint.
The A’s will give Toro’s playing time to younger players who are looking to get acclimated to the major leagues. Since Toro is out of options, the club couldn’t easily send him down to the minors, which has led to this DFA.
With the deadline now passed, the A’s will have to place Toro on waivers. Perhaps some club will be interested based on his early season results. The numbers have fallen off but the injury perhaps explains some of that. He also has a tiny .188 batting average on balls in play in that rough patch starting at the beginning of June, compared to a .333 BABIP he carried through the end of May. If any club likes him enough to put in a claim, he can be controlled through 2026.
If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will likely stick with the A’s as non-roster depth. Since he has more than three years of service time, he has the right to elect free agency. But since he has fewer than five years of service, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary to do so. If he ends up sticking with the A’s in a non-roster capacity, he would become a free agent at season’s end, like all outrighted players with at least three years of service.
Remember you heard this first.
2025
A’s ahead of the Astros in the standings
Wouldn’t be shocking. Question is how Texas will respond next year.
If the astros lose bregman than I can see that, maybe astros finish .500 in 2025 and then if tucker leaves they rebuild in 2026
2024 is their last (strong) dance and 2025 is the real last dance
No need to emphasize your involvement, I always remember where I first heard stupid things.
The Athletics being ahead of the Astros next year is stupid? That does not seem far fetched.
Well good luck to you then.
I venture you will need more luck than any of us.
I am 47 and already comfortably retired. I have all the luck I need. But thanks for the well wishes.
I never asked or cared about your age but that makes it worse based on the way you comment.
But they’ll be called the Sacra Mentos. Mason Miller will inherit the nickname “The Freshmaker”.
Toro?? why?? It just does not make that much sense… The guy was just the A’s motor at the start of the season… Unfortunately, he got hurt and therefore lost his mojo – and his role – but otherwise Toro was great…
Jacob Wilson will make Toro that much easier to forget about
Toro instead of Tyler Nevin ???
Toro’s stats are better than Nevin’s.
Then again, his Pops isn’t Phil Nevin.
Agree 100% The NPB has alot of good players, so he definitely won’t win, but a good AAAA player like Toro can really put up some numbers over there.
“The NPB has a lot of good”…If that doesn’t work out, Abraham Toro can start working on his dance moves, because the Savanna Bananas are always hiring. If he clears waivers quickly Toro can sign onto the Banana’s current musical version of “The Natural”.
Unfortunately after the injury Toro was completely unproductive
Man that makes the Milwaukee trade for Toro seem even more ludicrous. The Brewers return of Chad Patrick has been one of the best starting pitchers in AAA this year. The A’s could regret this one for years to come.
Kind of feels like Patrick will never pitch in the bigs for Milwaukee. They dug up Keuchel’s corpse out of a Toronto cemetery rather than call him up in the middle of an impressive stretch of games.
Seems like the front office doesn’t believe his stuff will play above AAA. Toro was not going to be given a contract by Milwaukee though, so they did well to even get milb fodder.
Toro? That’s a lot of bull.
I have to give Toro a lot of credit – he has consistently been a banjo hitter since day one with HOU. For a brief moment he was an Astro killer with SEA, but his spurts of productivity have been few and far between. Somebody will kid themselves into thinking otherwise and sign this guy to a minors deal.
And that somebody will be Farhan Zaidi. Mark it down.
And the justification will be Toro’s versatility while downplaying the fact that the guy can’t hit. Every GM who has acquired him sings the same song, and they all get rid of him for the same reason.
A’s roster and with its upside is better right now than many lineups on mlb.
Patience.
He’d be an upgrade over Singleton in HOU
Just to throw it out there, the link for Armando Alvarez leads to another player of the same name.
Here is the correct link:
baseball-reference.com/players/a/alvarar01.shtml
He makes a good lawnmower, though.
Cleared waivers? So no other teams were BULLISH on Toro?
Surprised no one grabbed him
I guess O’Toro doesn’t rule