In a move that I don’t think surprises much of anyone, Kenny Lofton was traded to the Cleveland Indians today for minor league catcher Max Ramirez.
Ramirez will be assigned to Class a Bakersfield. According to Jamey Newberg, he’s not on the 40 man, but will be Rule 5 eligible after the season. According to the Rangers media notes for today, Ramirez has been in the Carolina League (A) all season, batting .303 with 20 doubles, 12 home runs, and 62 RBI in 77 games. Pretty decent numbers there. He was on the World team in the recent Futures game in San Fran, as well as being on that league’s All Star game team. You can check out Max’s page on the Minor League Baseball site here. Don’t know what the long term plans are, but it can never hurt to add a good looking piece to the system.
As for Kenny.. I’m actually sad to see him go. Oh, I know we need to give Marlon Byrd a real shot in center field for the rest of the season. For all the right baseball reasons, this was a good move. Kenny was not going to help in 2007 here once the season got going. But heck, he could still bring it at his age. He was our stolen base leader (21), played a good centerfield, and was just someone who seemed like a good guy to have around. So he goes back to Cleveland, one of the more notable stops in his train ride of a career (Astros, Indians, Braves, White Sox, Giants, Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Rangers). Do I hear Mike Morgan getting worried about the number of teams? :)
Anyway, Kenny’s time here was short, but I certainly enjoyed it. One of those guys that would have been awesome down the stretch if we were playing the entire season like the last 3 weeks or so have gone.
The corresponding 25 man roster move with Lofton departing was Nelson Cruz being recalled. Nelson seems to have been passed in the pecking order by Marlon Byrd. I wonder how Cruz will respond now.