After yesterday’s news that the Milwaukee Brewers were signing outfielder Raimel Tapia to a big league contract, the expectation was that he would be active for last night’s game against the Minnesota Twins. However, no official announcement came with the corresponding roster move(s) and the news was pushed back to today.
Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel took to Twitter to confirm the moves that were made to bring Tapia aboard. Infielder Abraham Toro has been optioned to Triple-A Nashville while RHP Cam Robinson has been designated for assignment.
Before we dive any further into this, let me start by saying that it’s surprising that Blake Perkins was not optioned down to the minor leagues instead of Toro. One would think that the latter’s positional versatility and past big league experience would give him a leg up over the former, but this does not appear to be the case.
Brewers News: Tapia signed, Toro optioned, Robinson DFA’d
In Tapia, the Brewers are bringing aboard a left-handed swinging outfielder who has a nice set of wheels on him. The 29-year-old is an eight-year veteran in the big leagues and is only two seasons removed from a 20-stolen base season. He is decent-but-not-great with the bat, but there’s no reason he can’t be a serviceable fourth outfielder for the Crew. On defense, he is best suited for a corner outfield role, but he has never been much of a defender at any of the three positions on the grass.
Toro, 26, came over to Milwaukee back in December in the Jesse Winker/Kolten Wong deal. He has been a useful bench piece for a few different clubs over his five-year career, but has never done enough to warrant a guaranteed full-time starting gig. His big league tenure with the Brewers has consisted of just five games this year and he is 4-for-8 with a home run and five driven in. He’s been swinging a nice bat in Triple-A so far, so don’t count on him staying down there much longer as the season moves on.
Then there’s Robinson, a 23-year-old pitcher who just has not been able to put it together this year in the minor leagues. The right-hander was drafted in the 23rd round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Brewers and was placed on the 40-man roster this past offseason to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft. The decision by Milwaukee to place him on the 40-man seemed like a no-brainer at the time, as Robinson was coming off of a season in which he posted a 2.49 ERA with 11.6 SO/9 across 52 outings and 65 innings.
However, the wheels have fallen off for him in 2023. Through 21 appearances between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville, Robinson has a ghastly 8.55 ERA in 20 innings, thanks to 21 runs (19 earned) on 28 hits already. He continues to strike batters out at a high rate, but walks have become a massive issue for him and he is currently surrendering around 12.5 hits per nine innings on average.
If there’s a positive to find in Robinson’s recent performance, it’s that he is almost 100 percent guaranteed to stick around in the organization. Now that he has been designated for assignment, the Brewers have 10 days to either trade him or lose him on waivers to any team interested in claiming him. The only caveat with a team potentially acquiring him is that they would have to stash him on their 40-man roster, and he has not been a pitcher deserving of such a spot this year. Look for him to stick around and get some additional time in the organization to turn things around.
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