Resop Hits Waivers
The Braves called up RHP Chris Resop back in June, mainly in order to avoid losing him to an out clause in his contract. Resop appeared in only one Major League game, on June 15th, before missing time due to an oblique injury. Apparently, the Braves feel as if they need his 40-man roster spot, as they have requested outright waivers, according to Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
It’s easy to get confused about what kind of waivers mean what (I know I was), so we’ll let Biz of Baseball explain outright waivers here.
A club that wishes to remove a player from its 40-man roster but keep him in its minor-league system must first place him on outright or special waivers. Outright waivers are not revocable, so a player claimed on outright waivers may not be pulled back by his original club. When a player in the middle of a guaranteed contract is claimed on waivers, the claiming club pays $20,000 and a pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary, with the original club remaining responsible for paying the rest of the money due under the contract. A club may not request outright waivers on a player with a complete no-trade clause or on a player ten-and-five rights.
So it appears that Chris Resop will be up for grabs. It’s not terribly surprising that a 28 year old with 27 innings of MLB experience and -0.2 WAR in that time is put on waivers, but Resop isn’t your typical player. He has moved from outfielder to reliever and now to starter in his time in the minor leagues, and he looked phenomenal in AAA this season. Resop struck out 87 batters in just under 80 innings for AAA Gwinnett while inducing grounders on just under 50% of his balls in play. His 2.78 FIP was deflated by a low HR rate, but it’s hard to argue with the strikeout numbers, even with a walk rate just over 3.
Unfortunately, none of the systems we use here at FanGraphs have projections for Resop except for Marcel, which projects the league average due to a nearly complete lack of MLB information. As such, it’s hard to put a concrete value on Resop, due to his lack of time as a starter and his advanced age for the league. But it’s also hard to imagine a situation where all 30 teams can’t find a 25-man roster spot for a player with a solid fastball and those kinds of numbers in AAA. If Resop clears waivers, some GMs are going to have some explaining to do.
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What are the chances that Wren is making room for Freddie Freeman?
Seems to make sense, Glaus needs off his knee for a bit and Freeman has shown that he is clearly ready for MLB action… Well, one can dream I guess.
Clearly ready? Freeman has a .845 OPS at AAA. Look at what Mike Stanton (also 20) is doing in the majors after a 1.171 OPS at AAA–he’s hitting for power (and has power that Freeman will never approach), but is only getting on base ~30% of the time.
I love Freeman, but he’s not ready to contribute yet.
Note one: Stanton had a 1.17 OPS at AA – he never saw AAA action.
Yes, a .845 OPS is lower than I’d like to see, and yes, I wouldn’t expect him to hit at an enormous clip, and yes, I don’t want to see him sitting on a bench meaning he’d only be up for a bit, but Glaus needs off that knee. In June his fly balls headed to left (his power spot) at 33.4% (including homers), and in July he only pulled the ball in 7.7% of his fly balls. He can’t turn on that knee. Freddie will give him a break for a week or so then go back to everyday work at AAA until ’11, and he’ll produce a bit and check for holes in his game. This is just the scenario I foresee.
Right on about Stanton. It sure would be interesting to see FF for a week of action, but I still disagree about him being “clearly ready.”
Not saying he’s ready, but Freeman has a much better approach and sense ofthe strikezone than Stanton. To compare the two is laughable because they have completely different skill sets.