Brandon Allen Claimed by Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays have claimed Brandon Allen off of waivers. Allen was designated for assignment ten days ago when the A’s added Daric Barton to the 25-man roster, meaning today was the last possible day for him to clear waivers. I am a little surprised he went so long as to fall to the Rays but it was quite clear that there was little to no hope of him clearing waivers and being outrighted to Sacramento. In 374 plate appearances across 109 MLB games he owns a pretty miserable .205/.291/.375 slash line with a .291 wOBA and 76 wRC+ adding to a grand total of -0.1 WAR. He has been a force in the Pacific Coast League where his power plays well with 58 home runs in 238 games, but the contact rate just isn’t there against MLB pitching as he has made contact just 51.1% of the time when swinging (about two-thirds of the time is league average).
The interesting thing to note about this entire transaction is that this proves Allen’s trade value had reached near zero. Teams were willing to pick him up and give him a shot but weren’t willing to pay for that with any prospects or players. I assume he will backup Carlos Pena for the Rays, which is interesting as the two have much in common in many respects.
