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Just a couple of years ago, Allen Craig was the cleanup hitter for a team in the World Series. In 2013, Craig hit .315/.373/.457 and was locked into what seemed like a team-friendly, five-year contract for $31 million. Craig was an All-Star and looked to be on his way a career as a solid above-average major league regular. Just two seasons later, Craig is hitting .146/.255/.208 as a part-time bench player and now heading to Triple-A. Just as quickly Craig became a big league regular, he became an afterthought.
Craig received an opportunity to showcase his talents to both the Red Sox and other teams when Shane Victorino went down with an injury early in the season. Craig struggled both offensively and defensively and was unable to make any resemblance of an impact with his starting opportunity. Craig headed into spring training among attractive outfielders on the trade market. That value is all but gone now.
Because Craig has not accumulated four years of service time, he could not refuse a demotion to the minor leagues. He has no trade protection written in his contract. Craig will now receive the chance have regular at-bats, but he has no control over his future.
- The moment that we've all been waiting for, Kris Bryant's first major league home run, finally came. And it was glorious.
- The Pirates pulled off a feat that has never happened before in a major league game: a 4-5-4 triple play. Yeah, you read that right.
- The return the Red Sox received for John Lackey at the trade deadline last season is looking a whole lot worse than it did initially.
- Andrew McCutchen is really, really good at baseball. He hasn't been so far this year. I'm just worried that his haircut has taken away his superpowers.
- The Mets are calling up top pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard is a high-ceiling prospect and could potentially make an impact immediately.
- It's never too early for a 2015 MLB mock draft!
- Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt thinks that Chase Utley's early season slump will come to an end soon.
- Josh Hamilton will return to the field on Sunday with Triple-A Round Rock.
- Alfredo Simon throws a pitch that's really slow. It's an absolute blast to watch.
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