Thursday, May 19, 2016

Belated congratulations to Tony Wolters and other musings

Baseball doesn't totally consume me as it used to so this one got by me.   Tony Wolters is catching for the Colorado Rockies.   Yes, the same Tony Wolters that we lost on waivers to Colorado when we DFA'd him to sign the immortal Juan "game winning" Uribe.   One of 4 DFAs of prospects the Indians did this spring to open roster spots for guys like Ross Detweiler and Uribe (Marlon Byrd and Rajai Davis were other veterans we added), Wolters is now playing in the majors.  

Now Wolters is only hitting .200 but he is only 23 years old.  Having watched him play in the minors for years now I was disappointed when the Indians lost him.   I don't think he will ever be a great player but when you lose a prospect you expect to get something back.  

The Indians got nothing back.

Now, admittedly, the other three guys, James Ramsey, Zach Walters and Giovani Soto are all struggling at AAA this year.   However, how about trading them for other prospects who are struggling or even a Domonican prospect who is probably 6 years away from the majors instead of giving them away for some paltry sum of cash.    In my opinion the Indians treat borderline prospects inappropriately.   They add guys to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft and then DFA them soon thereafter, losing them anyway.   How crazy is that?

So, who knows if Wolters will have a ML career or this is just his moment in the sun.   All I can say is good luck to him and wonder why the Indians would give up on a prospect who had decent upside and give him away for nothing.   And then have the guy make a ML roster that same spring. 

It seems like he was worth more than a waiver price, don't you think?  

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