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40-Man Moves: Cole Kimball Re-Claimed, Four Added

It’s like so weird…

According to multiple online sources, the Nationals have re-claimed Cole Kimball, who had been placed on waivers by Toronto Blue Jays in the wake of tonight’s midnight deadline to submit 40-man rosters for the the Rule 5 draft.

According to Mark Zuckerman, the move was required when the Blue Jays claimed another pitcher (Andrew Carpenter) off waivers from the Padres and were trying to clear room for him.

At virtual press, 16 of the 30 MLB teams have added players thus far, per MLBDepthCharts.com

UPDATE:
As pointed out below, the Nationals have announced the following four players have been added to the 40-man roster:

  • 1B Tyler Moore
  • C Jhonatan Solano
  • CF Eury Perez
  • C Derek Norris

The selection of Solano is the most curious, and one has to think that this means that either Jesus Flores or Norris could be traded, with Solano as the fallback option. Perez is a close second, especially for a position player that hadn’t reached AA.

Thus, notable names that appear to be eligible:
Adrian Sanchez
Marcos Frias
Hector Nelo
Josh Smoker
Sandy Leon
Pat McCoy
Stephen King
Erik Komatsu
Tanner Roark
Brad Meyers

None of these is terribly surprising, and yes, that includes Brad Meyers. As previously reported, players with an injury history are often left unprotected, as are position players with either little AA or AAA experience (e.g. Leon) or coming off subpar seasons (e.g. McCoy).

17 Commments

  1. WOW did not see 2 of these 4 moves coming… per Natioals PR on Twitter:

    Nationals select the contracts of 1B Tyler Moore, C Derek Norris, OF Eury Perez & C Jhonatan Solano… 40-man roster now at 37 players.

  2. Since this has to happen today to protect against Rule 5, I suppose that the 3 spots left open are meant for FAs. Is it realistic to expect the Nats to actually draft a Rule 5 kid this year?

    +1/2St.

    1. No. As a middle-of-the-pack team, the pickins will be slim, not to mention the team is hurting for OFs (two of the four currently on the roster have yet to play AAA).

      1. Which is kind of the point of the Rule 5: A chance for players that are buried/overlooked to get a chance elsewhere.

  4. What are the chances that Komatsu gets claimed? I guess that .595 post trade OPS didn’t endear him to Rizzo, rightly so.

    A commenter at Nats Insider said that Antonelli’s got a deal with the O’s. Wish he was sticking around, but I can understand his agent wanting him to get him to a system where they believe there’s more room for infielders. Lombardozzi’s callup over Antonelli’s was probably revealing to both sides.

    1. To be brutally honest, his path back to the majors is easier with the O’s, even if he’ll be just keeping the seat warm until Schoop and Machado are ready.

    2. Antonelli suffered from being the 2nd choice out of SYR all year, imo. Bixler was outhitting him & got the call when RZim went down, and Lombadorzzi was homegrown & didn’t miss a beat after his callup from HAR.

      The report of him signing a deal with the O’s would give him a better chance of getting back to the show, particularily if Roberts continues to have health issues.

      1. Good for Matt! With Desmond, Espinosa, Lombardozzi and Rendon already on the 40 man roster it would have been tough for the Nationals to spring another spot on Antonelli. While there is some chance the Nationals might cut a trade, I don’t blame Antonelli for taking a major league contract when offered. I hope he and Randy Knorr can swap big league stories during the Battle of the Beltways for the next few years – after a Nationals win, for course 🙂

  5. Admit to being pleasantly suprised by Solano’s addition to the 40-man, but I concur with Sue_D that the move smells of a trade involving either Flores (most likely), or Norris.

    The Perez callup is the one that really stuns me; Plus-plus speed and a slightly above average OF arm are his only tools, imo. He’s the definition of a ‘slap-hitter’ at the plate, who I felt would probably stall out at AA once he starts seeing better breaking balls & more 94mph+fastballs at the plate.

    1. I was really surprised by Perez; I doubt Komatsu gets taken, but I think he was more likely to get picked up than Perez. My one thought is that Perez could get stashed in the 25th roster slot mostly as a pinch runner, and thus be useful for more than just garbage time pinch hitting for the pitcher. Komatsu would be more dead weight in the #25 role, I think.

  6. My own analysis matches what Sue said. http://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=3101

    I worry that Meyers will get picked. Yes he has a previous injury history, but he put in a full solid year (with the exception of one small DL trip mid-season). I predicted he’d get protected; now i’m predicting that some pitching poor team may take a flier on him for their 5th starter spot.

    Komatsu probably gets left off b/c he’s a right fielder with no power. What does he play in the majors? If he can’t play center field, then his lack of power is a non-starter. When guys like Laynce Nix (who has 25-homer power) can’t get guaranteed contracts in the majors, what would Komatsu get?

  7. Er, re the comment often heard about rightfielders being homeless due to lack of power, Ichiro’s career slugging is .421 and nobody’s complainin’ … A guy who can hit close to .300, get on base a lot, throw great, run the bases is okay in RF. That’s all Komatsu has to do.

  8. The selection of Solano was very smart. Any national baseball article about rosters always says how short every organization is for catching — and it’s a big strength for us.

    Perez? Not so smart. Actually, pretty dumb.

    Meyers — very sad, as I enjoyed following him & he’s guarenteed to get picked.

  9. Sue,
    I may be overlooking something. When I go to the 40 man roster and count our players I only come up with 36. Everyone is saying 37. What am I missing?
    Thanks

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