Beltran/Hayashi return to Omaha from salary manipulation.(45.05)

[niles08]

The Omaha Cyclones have announced that they have purchased the contracts of shortstop Roberto Beltran and starting pitcher Norio Hayashi after previously optioning them to AAA last week in a surprising move.

Beltran is expected to immediately return to the lineup where he had hit a paltry .218/.290.286 so far in 131 at bats. In AAA, he managed a .269/.367/.385 in 30 plate appearances over 7 games.

Just as Beltran returns to the lineup, Hayashi will immediately return to the rotation and is expected to pitch against Louisville on Friday night. Hayashi has been very good in 2045, pitching to a 4-2 record with a 3.34 ERA in 56 innings. It was somewhat surprising to see the club send him down to AAA. He did not pitch a single inning while in AAA so for the club to say this was a "get something right" situation would be an insult.

With both Hayashi and Beltran sitting at 40 service days accumulated this season, and the club openly confirming that they were indeed trying to manipulate service time, don’t be shocked to see Hayashi and Beltran spend another week or two in AAA this year as the season goes on. It’s probably worth circling the middle of June, where Omaha experiences 2 off-days in a 4-day span or July over all-star break weekend when Omaha has 3 consecutive days off.