RF Altair Tableriou was released from the Valencia squad this week. The 27 year-old was due to have his final $500K salary season in 2063 but his demise over the last two seasons led to the Valencia front office cutting ties to open up an additional slot on the 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 portion of the off-season.
Altair was riding high during the 2060 season in AAA hitting for a .294 average and a .352 on-base percentage to go along with his 29 homers and 96 RBI. Going into the spring of the 2061 season the scouts were raving about Altair's potential giving him an overall rating of 40 with a potential of 70 which including home run ratings of 7/9. Being 25 years of age at the time, it was determined that Altair's development in the minors was probably peaked and it was worth the risk of bringing him up to the big league club to see if he would fill out any more.
At the same time, the Stars' front office was in the midst of a contract dispute with Jose Vargas who was wanting a 6-year deal at a $12M clip per season. Vargas ended up signing a $20M per year deal with the Charlotte Flyers and his currently slated to play in the Monty while the Stars just endured an 100+ loss season. While Vargas may not be earning his $20M salary, he has still managed to put up respectable numbers stealing 130 bases over the last two years.
Meanwhile Altair's ratings have plummeted from 40/70 down to 35/35 culminating in a 2062 dismal performance of hitting .188/.268 with 1 homer in every 4 at bats while locking down a WAR of -0.9. A full digression of Altair's ratings can be seen below:
With the influx of outfielders coming up from AAA last September and a few more still in AAA, Altair is definitely the odd man out as 2063 approaches. Chalk this one up to a big swing and a miss by the Valencia GM.
This move puts the Valencia payroll below the $50M mark at $49.7M going into the off season. At this point, all rumors from the front office lean toward the Stars not being a major player in the free agent market this season as they are looking to use 2063 to stoke up the rebuild going into 2064 or 2065.
