Omaha announced that 4 members of the team, a few of the more popular ones that fans had been waiting what felt like ages to see perform in Omaha are now making the 46-mile trip on I80 West to Lincoln.
Heading to Lincoln are starting pitchers Takashi Nakamura and Jose Martinez. Nakamura was listed as the #1 prospect when the season began. He has struggled this season a bit, with a 5.44 ERA through his first 96 innings of BBA ball. Martinez has also struggled this season after posting a 3.49 ERA last year in 237 innings pitched. This year, he has thrown 113 innings and has a 5.78 ERA.
Joining those two pitchers are two corner outfielders, who are both having pretty good seasons. Amid Kasim finally made his debut this year and has a 158 OPS+ in his first 95 plate appearances thanks to a .389 on base percentage. Kasim was called up after Wilson Estrada was injured and played at first base for a bit while he recovered. He found his spot in the everyday lineup as the DH shortly after.
Maybe the most shocking, is outfielder, Eric Wagner. Wagner is graded by scouts as a 75 overall player, currently at the age of 23. He was having his best season in the big leagues of his 3-year BBA experience, with a 143 OPS+ and 2.2 WAR. In the past 2 seasons he had a 108 OPS+ and 112 OPS+ so his 143 OPS+ was a pretty big step in the right direction for him. Regardless, he finds himself heading down to Lincoln for the time being.
With cries of “service manipulation” coming from the player union, the front office responded.
It's worth pointing out the players have the following current "service time".“We feel all these players could use some additional seasoning. Wagner and Kasim have been great at the plate, but mediocre with their gloves. Jose needs some time to figure out what he is doing differently than last year, and Nakamura has some control issues. None of these guys were going to be voted for the all-star teams, so we felt it was in the team’s and players best interest to let them go down to AAA and work on things for a week while the BBA celebrates the all-star week. We’re not planning on any of these being long term departures from Omaha.” Said GM Justin Niles
Nakamura: 97 days(up since opening day)
Martinez:1 yr, 97 days(up since opening day of last season)
Wagner: 2 years, 92 days
Kasim: 70 days
By those calculations, Nakamura & Martinez would need at least 2 weeks in the minors to push things out another year, while Wagner would need just over a week to avoid arbitration next season. Omaha has grown notorious for this type of practice, and with the team clearly out of things this season, one might wonder if they just leave Namamura and Martinez down now for a few weeks instead of spreading it over a few years as they have notoriously done in the past(Timo Dooley, Andre Ly).