Pat Burrell was released by the Rays this week. He was still owed a lot of money by the Rays, who signed him to a 2-year, $16 million dollar contract before the 2009 season. He didn't perform well the for the Rays at all, only managing to hit 16 Home Runs in around 500 at-bats in his time there, to go with a .218 batting average.
However, it should be noted that "Pat the Bat", who is a former first-round pick, hit 29 Home Runs or more in every season from 2005-2008, with an OBP of .380 during that time period. Obviously Burrell is not very far removed from his good seasons with the Phillies, but he did suffer an injury last year that may have decreased his hitting ability.
The question, now that he's been released, is what happens to him now. More than likely a team really hurting for offense (the Seattle Mariners and the White Sox come to mind) will take a risk on Burrell and pay him around the league minimum and give him a shot to produce for them.
I think that Burrell has got to have something left in the tank, because he's only 33 and he's not that far removed from being a very good player. I really hope that he can catch on with someone and prove the Rays wrong, but the Rays did take a risk investing so much of their tiny payroll into a player with as limited a skill-set as Burrel has. Not that it matters for them right now, considering they have the best record in baseball.
Best of luck to Pat Burrell in finding another team to play for, it'd be a little odd if someone nicknamed "Pat the Bat" was currently employed in an occupation where he uses a bat.
3 comments:
Do you see any chance of him going to an NL team such as the Padres or Giants, who both have excellent pitching staffs, but very poor offenses. Especially with the Dodgers coming up on both of these teams tails.
Well, his defensive inability makes it a little hard for him to go there. He's an utterly horrible outfielder. When he was with the Phillies his offensive presence more than made up for his defensive deficiencies, but I don't know if any NL-team will make the bet that he will find his old form.
He could be a decent pinch-hit specialist, but I still think it's more likely that the Mariners or the White Sox decide to give him a shot because they don't have to worry about his underachieving on both sides of the ball.
Told you Pat would go to the Giants :P
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