Twins Claim Jordan Schafer from Braves

Oh my.

He's a fill in player to keep a bench spot warm for now after the Fuld trade. He costs nothing but money for the rest of the season...what's left of it.

He was a top prospect at one time. I've mentioned the Twins actually signing a quality CF/4th OF candidate for next season, along with a possible milb contract Rochester option for depth. Possibly not necessary with Hicks and Rosario any longer.

What if this kid actually hits, or is signed to a milb deal and does well at Rochester as a fill in player?

Again, this is just a flyer and fill-in player, not a big option.

I'm a little excited because at least this wasn't a burned out former Twin with no upside.  Baby steps.

A K% of 26.6 % at the major league level. Didn't tabulate the AA level.

I can't say this is a bad move because it might mean less SSs in the outfield.

Perhaps Schafer will click with our hitting coaches and bat a little better. If not, say goodbye and send him away.

He's stolen a lot of bases, so he'll be a great pinch-run option.

 

I do wonder who we'll send down to AAA. Colabello maybe?

Exactly. Schafer is a low-risk temp defensively in the OF. Excellent pinch runner, base stealer. And if Bruno can find the magic words to make him a .250 hitter, he could become a semi-regular player. Otherwise, he's gone next season after Hicks learns to have a plan at the plate, or if some other OF in AA or AAA can hit well enough to promote.

Meanwhile, Schafer clearly does NOT have a plan at the plate. Not a good one, anyway. I saw him stand there and get struck out on 3 pitches from Hahn. That was not a plan, that was a guy that had no idea what to do, so he just stood there. Heck, I could do that, except I'd be leaping backwards and crapping my pants with every pitch... Those guys throw hard!

Here's great news - Rockies have DFA'd Jason Pridie!!!!!  Maybe he's comin' back.  

Eh, Gardy wants to see what he has in Schafer. I expected him to get a few starts early on.

I don't doubt your reasoning Brock. I am only concerned that his play the last two months will somehow take precedence over the last 4 years. An OK 100 plate appearances might stop the Twins from looking for a different solution.

I like his base running. I hate his lack of bunting ability.

Well, somewhat comically he has an OPS of ~.850 in his first 20 PAs with the team so I'd wager he's going to get a few more starts.

 

As long as Arcia doesn't sit at his expense - as he did today - I can't say I really care. I don't think Schafer is going to amount to anything but eh, whatever.

 

Sitting Arcia against a righty.

 

I just. I just...

 

COME ON, GARDY.

I think Arcia is day-to-day with a sore back or side or something.

1. Rhett Bollinger ‏@RhettBollinger 5h

   Arcia said he tweaked his lower back on a swing in Friday's game. But that it's feeling better and he's taking BP in the cages today.

    

    

    

   Maybe just being cautious with him.

I like his base running. I hate his lack of bunting ability.

Welcome to Braves fans' misery.  Pinch hit for a pitcher to use Schafer to move a runner = Net loss from the pitcher hitting and bunting on his own.  Not many hitters who you can say that about.

In fairness, he was apparently the 41st best player for the Braves.  Might that be an upgrade for our 25-man?

In fairness to Schafer, he was no longer in the 25 best players, but he would have been in the 40.  He just didn't have options, and he wasn't in those top 25, so he had to be put through waivers to send him down.

Very good point, and yesterday I was inclined to just leave it at that, but I thought some more and the lack of options attached to a player reduces his value, both to his current team and to any teams thinking about acquiring him.  He might have been one of the 40 "best" players the Bravos had, maybe around #37 or lower, and they just couldn't keep him.  If he was #35 or above I would expect they'd find some other roster move to make.  But from a dollars and sense point of view he almost by definition was deemed by their front office to be #41 to keep.

 

We're both looking at it from a very fine-grain point of view.  And my main POV continues to be that I look forward to the day when acquiring even some good team's 26th best player doesn't improve our 25-man roster enough to justify the paperwork to acquire him.  We're not close to that yet, even if we see help coming on the horizon.

Completely get what you're saying, but I will tell you that there are three other outfielders, two of whom are center fielders, on the Braves' 40-man roster that are in AAA.  Acquiring Bonifacio, who would take really the only value that Schafer was providing to the 25-man - speed, made Schafer more dispensable than the other three on the 40-man, all three of whom I'd place below Schafer in organizational charting.  He's likely about the 27th active, and if he was an arm, they'd find a way to make it work, but there's more of him on their 40-man that makes him more removable in their particular case.

More discouragingly, on the broadcast Dick was convinced that Shaeffer was "exactly the type of guy" that the Twins were looking for to "upgrade" the Twins 25-man roster going to into next season...

No reason to be discouraged. This is Dick Bremer we're talking about.

I will say that it was very fun yesterday watching Schafer, Santana and Nunez stealing bases and showing an element of speed in the lineup that we haven't seen in a while.  Jaso had no chance to throw any of them out.

I doubt Schafer is with the team next year but I'm all for having play quite a bit of center the rest of the way so Santana can get back to SS.  Santana is turning into the feel good story for the 2014 Twins.