Mariners DFA Balentien
According to Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse, the Mariners have designated outfielder Wladimir Balentien for assignment. He's bumped to make room for Michael Saunders.
The move is somewhat interesting, as the Mariners had once considered the powerful Balentien the future of their outfield when Adam Jones departed to the Orioles in the Erik Bedard trade. The 25-year-old Balentien has been disappointing, though, posting a .619 OPS in 434 plate appearances the last three seasons. He was ranked the Ms' #5 prospect by Baseball America as recently as last year. You can bet he'll latch on to another team willing to gamble.
almost 3 years ago
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RHH outfielder with potential - I was thinking we should go get him....
….until I looked at his splits. He actually hits lefties worse, hits worse on the road than he does at home, and hits worse after the all-star break rather than before.
Ouch…. I wouldn’t mind him in Fresno’s outfield though
I was just about to do a fanshot on this, and since I’m a lazy kind of guy, thanks for saving me the trouble. I agree that Sabean should definitely take a look, although I don’t think he gets waived out of the league. I would think you would have to make a deal here.
However, let me make a comment here, as we act like all our prospects are made out of solid gold. This guy was considered a can’t miss prospect just a year or two ago, and look what happened to him. This is why when you have a chance to go for it, you GO FOR IT!! No trading of Buster or Mad Bum, but anyone else should be talked about by Sabean in the next week. I’m guessing he can’t get the Halladay-Rios package without offering up Bumgarner, which is why I guess we’re no longer involved, but Sabean needs to be willing to make a move to fix this offense if it’s a player we can control past this season and he’s a legit boost to our roster.
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I’m not quite sure how he was a can’t miss guy with his contact rates, but he’s definitely a low-risk buy type of guy who has a lot of upside still. Would not mind having him in AAA instead of Copeland or Timpner.
It’s true that he struck out a lot in the minors, but he hit with a lot of power and knew how to take pitches. I remember teams trying to pry him away in deadline deals, and I’m wondering who Seattle passed up because they weren’t willing to part with him.
Proud new dad of Edgardo errr Edgar Renteria!!!
I can see takeinga flyer on him. He does have a lot of power and is very athletic. He is also very much in the Bavasi era/ current Giatns mode of being a hack-o-holic.
I would almost rather see if the Giants could intrest the M’s in a Lewis for Clement swap. Not that I expect a lot of Clement but he seems to be in their dog house, can play some 1st base and C and the M’s have been looking for LHB. / shrugs
That’s it! Katie bar the door for this 79 win team is star crossed! And I am loving it.
It sounds like he’s probably going to be part of a trade in the next few days.
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Foppert for Balentien
Do we still even have Foppert?
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Foppert gone.
Just give them Matt Kinney or Steve Hammond or something. Jack would probably take Hammond, he drafted him in Milwaukee.
Then maybe we can trade Kinney or Sadler for Omar Vizquel. Vizquel can come back and take some starts away from Rent to help rest him. Should keep both guys fresh enough to give us better than what we’ve been getting at SS.
And trade for Willingham and Sanchez, both of whom would be around next year too.
Can the Giants send Balentien to Fresno if he is claimed? if not, it wouldn’t make much sense to get balentien and willingham.
I agree that willingham and sanchez should be targets, but i would also like to throw another name into the pot, more a bench-upgrading bat: Delwyn Young. I would like Balentien, maybe for a A ball starter and velez, but would like to stash him at AAA until september. Young is the type of bench bat that this team could use. I would include lewis in a trade and DFA torres to make room for the players if we got them.
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by Speedforthewin on Jul 25, 2009 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions
I would include lewis in a trade and DFA torres….
I am the only guy that likes the Torres pick up ? Sure, he’s not a great hitter and is 31 years old. . Good speed though, and appears to be very good fielder. Seems to be a good late inning sub off of the bench.
Maybe I’m missing something. I need someone (stat nerd) to help me out on UZR and RZR.
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I have no problem with Torres. He’s the perfect 4th/5th OF type.
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Andres Torres has been a very solid 5th OF, and he leads the league in not being Eugenio Velez.
That said, I don’t really expect him to be a long term part of the organization. As a spare part goes, he’s done everything that could be expected, but he’s still a spare part. (See also: Steve Holm, 2008.)
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by EliminateMe on Jul 26, 2009 10:43 PM PDT up reply actions
It's definitely worth looking into
The guy has tremendous power (more than anyone on our team possibly sans Sandoval) and while he K’s too much, he would be one of our best hitters at drawing walks. Definitely a guy to take a look at.
Hard to say what the mariners would want since they are in a limbo state between contention in 09 and improving for the future, but I’d give up Nate/Lewis (unlikely they’d want more OF’s though) and in terms of prospects probably someone in the Tanner mold
Maybe English for Balentien straight up?
Brand new adoptive daddy for the Big Unit. Congrats go out to my son for his 300th win. Only 211 more wins until he catches Cy Young!
by Speedforthewin on Jul 25, 2009 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions
I don’t think the Mariners would have too much interest in him.
In truth, given the glut of OF’s the Giants have, I’m sure Sabean doesnt view Balentien as an upgrade (even though he’d more talented than any of our OF’s)
by NeifiChicken on Jul 25, 2009 12:45 PM PDT up reply actions
I think the mariners would look at it as any return they could get for balentien would be better than nothing. And as for Sabean, I would imagine he knows by now that the Giants are thin in AAA OF. I think Balentien is cheap, young power and as such should be looked at.
Brand new adoptive daddy for the Big Unit. Congrats go out to my son for his 300th win. Only 211 more wins until he catches Cy Young!
by Speedforthewin on Jul 25, 2009 12:46 PM PDT up reply actions
Isn't this a case of the grass is greener?
I’m not against us looking into Balentien & i liked him as a prospect but i’m not sure what he brings that our other outfielders don’t?
He’s been pretty terrible in the majors so far being 1 win below replacement & hitting much worse than Bowker & Schierholtz. He’s also projected by ZIPS to continue to hit worse than them so it’s not as if it’s an aberation. He did decently in the minors but again hit worse than both Bowker & Schierholtz managed. He’s not much different in terms of age either as he’s only 1/2 year younger than Schierholtz & a 1 year younger than Bowker.
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I’d stash him in the minors. Although it’s unlikely, he still has a chance of breaking out, and his ceiling is higher than any of our fringe OF’s.
You couldn’t stash him in the minors though as he’s out of options hence him being DFA’d rather than simply optioned down. So we can trade for him or claim him off waivers but we’d have to keep him on the 25 man roster & i don’t see that being a viable option given he’s been playing terribly & our outfielders have been performing better.
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ok, thank you for clarifying that. I wasn’t sure about that. If he clears waivers, we could sign him to a minor league deal and assign him to Fresno, correct?
Brand new adoptive daddy for the Big Unit. Congrats go out to my son for his 300th win. Only 211 more wins until he catches Cy Young!
by Speedforthewin on Jul 25, 2009 3:23 PM PDT up reply actions
Not totally accurate
If he’s DFA’d and he goes unclaimed by all MLB teams, then he becomes an unrestricted FA. He can sign with any team, for any type of contract – including a minor league contract – and he doesn’t have to be put on his new team’s 40 man roster. Of course, from his POV, he would most likely hold out for a major league contract and a spot on the 25 man roster, but if he gets no takers, he might sign a minor league contract and try and play his way onto the 40 man or 25 man roster in ST, like Aurilia, Medders, and Miller did with us this year.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
My mistake
I forgot about the exception to the DFA rule that states a player with less than 5 years of major league service time can be put through the DFA process and then be assigned to one of the team’s minor league clubs without his consent (ie. without offering him FA status) exactly one time in his career. As it stands now the Mariners must do one of the following:
1. Trade him to any other team they choose within 10 days. The acquiring team must have an open spot for him on their 25 man roster and his option status remains the same with the new team – although he can never again be forced to go the minors without his consent (ie. he can choose to become a FA if he isn’t traded and he clears waivers).
2. If they feel that they can’t work out a deal for him within the first 7 days, and they still want to keep him in their farm system, then they must place him on waivers.
(a) If they fail to place him on waivers within the first 7 days then they have 3 more days to try to work a trade.(b) Once they put him on waivers, then any team can claim him for nothing – except they must assume his current contract. Preference is given to the AL first, in reverse order of each team’s current won-loss record, then switches to the NL teams. If he is claimed by another team then the Mariners can still pull him off the waiver wire without losing him. If they do this, though, then they lose the opportunity of keeping him in their minor league system – they must either trade him or release him outright within the original 10 day window.
3. If they can’t work a trade within 10 days, then he is released outright and becomes an unrestricted FA.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
if he clears waivers
he’s still a member of the mariners organization. since he’s out of options, this is the only way to remove him from the active roster while still holding his rights, but another team can come in within a specified amount of time and assume his contract. that team would then have to keep him on their active roster, lest they subject him to another potential waiver claim via the DFA process.
signing him to a minor league contract would require the mariners to release him outright, but he probably would ask for a major league deal. there’s probably a team out there that can find room for him on their roster, so it’s doubtful he’d find his way into an organization that would then want to stash him in AAA, which is essentially what the mariners are trying/hoping to do.
1 slight point of contention
I believe that the Mariners intent must be to trade him. If they only wanted to try to stash him on their AAA team then they would have quietly placed him on waivers without the public’s knowledge. Then, if he cleared waivers he would still be on the 40 man roster and they could assign him to any minor league team in their system.
By DFA’ing him the Mariners have tied their own hands. He is now off their 40 man roster immediately and he can’t be pulled off the waiver wire without releasing him or trading him. Sometimes teams will DFA players they no longer want, in the hopes of showing how serious they are about trading the player and forcing another team, or teams, that wants him (but is non-committal) to complete a trade before he’s placed on waivers. The interested team(s) have an incentive to complete a trade outside of the waiver system because they fear a team in their league with a worse won-loss records would put in a claim on him, thus nixing the chance of them acquiring the player.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
speaking of DFA, didn’t the Phillies DFA Tyler Walker a couple of weeks ago? How come he’s still pitching for them?
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