NEWSFLASH: Roster Moves Galore
Joey Matschulat
Jose Vallejo (pictured) has been added to the 40-man roster. - mwlguide/Flickr.comAccording to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan, the Texas Rangers have purchased the contracts of right-handers John Bannister, Willie Eyre and Omar Poveda, as well as that of infielder Jose Vallejo, and have added all four players to their now-full 40-man roster.
Right-handers Wes Littleton and Kameron Loe have been designated for assignment, though the latter transaction was little more than a formality given that Loe is ostensibly Japan-bound.
The addition of Bannister is a bit surprising, but defensible (his control and velocity both measurably improved as the 2008 season dragged on), and we already talked about the Latin American duo of Poveda and Vallejo at length this morning. I'm not quite sure what the organization sees (or thinks it sees) in Eyre, who doesn't really amount to much more than a guy you can stash at the back of your bullpen and allow to soak up innings in blowout losses, who wasn't a very good pitcher for Texas in 2007 even before he succumbed to Tommy John surgery in August, and who is on the wrong side of 30; in any event, I'll be moderately shocked if he's on the 25-man roster come Opening Day 2009.
Exposing Strop to the Rule 5 Draft is a calculated risk on the part of the Rangers (though, once again, they're exposing him for the sake of Willie Eyre), and the line of thought must be that his injury will ward off any legitimate interest. Hopefully that assessment of the market is correct, because general manager Jon Daniels and company stand to take a lot of likely deserved criticism if Strop is drafted because the club decided it just had to protect Willie Eyre.
There's a reasonable chance that Texas will manage to slide Littleton through league-wide waivers and outright the optionless sidewinder to Triple-A Oklahoma City, who cannot decline such an assignment by virtue of not having previously been outrighted in his career. Still, a convincing argument can be made that retaining Willie Eyre over Littleton is misguided in and of itself.
Willie Eyre?
Reader Comments (7)
Willie Eyre and John Bannister? I think I would have rather seen Pedro Strop added than either of those two. I'm really concerned Strop will be snagged and stashed on the 60 day DL by some enterprising team, as Scott Lucas theorized the other day.
Bannister at least makes sense on a certain level, because his control and stuff both seem to be improving, and he's young and controllable...Eyre, on the other hand, is an odd 40-man roster addition at best and an atrocious addition at worst based on what we presently know. It's certainly possible he's refined his repertoire and the Rangers believe he would have been snatched up by some team willing to give him a shot, but there's nothing on paper to suggest he's anything more than just some guy.
Even if the Rangers have a full 40-man roster come December 11th, this will be a Rule 5 Draft worth watching just to see if Strop slips through the cracks.
For what it's worth, I'm testing out a third-party poll service here on the site since Squarespace has yet to implement a built-in solution...I'll be working on tweaking the look of it over the next several days...
From MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan:
Okay...again, I really hope Daniels is right about this, because losing a talented young reliever like Strop because the club was worried they might lose Willie freakin' Eyre would be simply ridiculous.
What is the fascination with this guy? Can somebody help me out here?
I'm at a loss re: Eyre as well - a 30 y/o TJ recoveree with an 86 ERA+ and 1.626 WHIP in 127 career innings is a strange choice to make over, well... pretty much anyone else we had the option of protecting/keeping on the roster. Even his career minor league numbers are nothing special. Apparently JD says there was buzz that we where going to lose Eyre in the rule 5, but I really have to question if taking the chance of Wes Littleton passing through waivers is any better than leaving Eyre exposed.
For what it's worth (and I posted this last night on LSB, so this isn't an opinion I just formulated on the spot), I think Littleton makes it through waivers untouched...that said, the Eyre/Strop confluence is really baffling given what information we presently have in our grubby little hands...
I guess I can understand liking Eyre if they see something in him, but I think the Rangers dropped the ball on not handling the 40 man roster better. Obviously not cutting Cat, or being more aggressive trading the excess players they weren't looking to protect on the 40 man roster... more so than just the Mayberry for Golson deal. I'm thinking Salty + Poveda might have enticed the Red Sox for Buchholz
Frankly, I'm still thinking Poveda and Saltalamacchia still might get that deal done, but it's going to take a stimulant that breaks the stalemate (and let's be perfectly honest here, that is what the two sides are at right now -- a stalemate)...Buster Olney wrote this this morning:
Couple that with Boston signing a free-agent pitcher to solidify their starting rotation situation, and suddenly that Buchholz-for-Saltalamacchia trade we've been hearing about for what seems like months on end becomes a lot more realistic. Still, it seems doubtful we'll see any movement on this front until next month.