I guess we should have seen this coming. When Cory Wade was released, reportedly in advance of exercising his opt-out, we could have gone through the roster and done some guessing. Very likely the official press knew who had opt-out contracts, but, to maintain their access to the players, declined to mention it. And in any case Chris Carter’s departure could simply be a matter of making room for Felipe Lopez. But that isn’t what the note from the Bulls reads like. This reads like Carter exercised an opt-out clause.
All I have seen so far is this email from the Bulls:
6/16: Chris Carter granted his release, Felipe Lopez outrighted to Durham
As the table from a couple of days ago shows, Mr. Carter had an above-average bat. Furthermore, his 46 RBI were a substantial fraction of all the runs scored by the Bulls this year (309, 15%). He was second in RBIs in the International League and had 8 more than his nearest teammate, Russ Canzler. He also led the Bulls in home runs with 10.
Have to say that I’m worried for several reasons:
- As with Cory Wade, we could see him in the uniform of a competitor in a couple of days.
- Unless Dan Johnson gets his groove back, the Bulls don’t have a single hitter the opposition needs to be afraid of.
- Doesn’t seem a fair trade for Lopez.
That said, it certainly is not Chris Carter’s fault that he and the Rays could not come to terms. We wish him well and hope that he catches on with either a major league team or with an organization whose AAA team is in the Pacific Coast League. Thanks for the runs and a couple of thrills. Good luck!
Posts
Some article mentioned 4 players other than Wade with opt out. At the time, I guessed:
ReplyDelete* Carter
* Swindle (since he had one last year)
* Ekstrom
* Hayhurst
Anyone seen the other 3 around since yesterday? :)
Listening todays awful game. 10 hits so far into 3rd inning. 1-8. Buente is not our man.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Cory Wade got a win today as a major league Yankee reliever. Looks like the Rays missed something.
We really need some powerful bats.
ReplyDeleteAnd a strong third baseman.
Along with strong middle relief.
I see Matt Moore tossed a no hitter down in AA. Maybe time to get some of that up here? :)
ReplyDeleteRegarding opt-outs if he has one, I'd guess that Swindle doesn't have anywhere to go.
ReplyDeleteBut Ekstrom just might, assuming he has an opt out.
This isn't like the Rays to make big mistakes regarding pitchers as they've done with Gonzalez, Wade, Buente, and Hall (others?) this year. Distracted by having all those draft picks?
Hayhurst is a good guess, I'd think, about an opt out. But not sure he has any where to go either.