Traded Jaime Garcia to the Minnesota Twins
Placed AAA RHP Mauricio Cabrera on the 7-day DL.
Promoted C Joe Odom from AA Mississippi to AAA Gwinnett.
Demoted OF Xavier Avery from AAA Gwinnett to A+ Florida.
Traded Jaime Garcia to the Minnesota Twins
Placed AAA RHP Mauricio Cabrera on the 7-day DL
Cabrera is easily the most broken player in the system at the moment. After a rookie big league season in 2016 where he was helpful and flashed signs of something more (2.82 ERA / 3.07 FIP / 3.97 DRA), Cabrera’s performance has completely gone off the rails in 2017. The ERAs are all dramatically terrible: 7.86 ERA / 5.64 FIP / 9.84 DRA. He’s striking out just 6.8 batters per 9, which is low for him and particularly low for possibly the hardest throwing pitcher in professional baseball. He’s giving up 8.9 hits per 9, which is somewhat manageable, but when paired with the 8.5 batters he’s walking per 9 as well, it’s not. It has been an unmitigated disaster, and a DL stint seems somewhat obvious for a player collapsing like this.
Promoted C Joe Odom from AA Mississippi to AAA Gwinnett
An organization known for aggressive promotion stays aggressive by sending Odom to AAA despite just 153 AA plate appearances in his career, and only 10 this year. While Odom certainly made the most of his 10 trips to the plate this year (5 hits, 2 doubles), his bat struggled in his initial promotion last year. He may not hit top 100 lists or even top 20 organizational lists, but Odom is a prospect, and his defense and power combo might be enough to carve out some kind of major league career.
Demoted OF Xavier Avery from AAA Gwinnett to A+ Florida
When a former MLB player, slashing .278/.374/.482 in AAA, gets assigned to A-ball for the first time in 7 years, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s most likely one of two things. Either Avery angered the organization in some way and this demotion is punitive in some way (less likely), or they just didn’t know what else to do to make room for Lane Adams’ return to Gwinnett, and Florida was logistically easier than Mississippi for a day or two. I expect Avery to be returned to Gwinnett or traded soon, because there’s no reason for him to waste his time in the Florida State League for long.
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