Vega & Villarreal set to begin season in AAA as Vega loses DH spot to Rule 5 pick.(49.7)

[niles08]

Francisco Vega has not only officially lost his designated hitter role to rule 5 pick Luis Urbina, but also lost his spot on the active Omaha roster.

Today, Omaha optioned both DH Francisco Vega & RP Fernando Villarreal to Triple-A Lincoln.

Vega, who was a former rule 5 draft pick in the 2046 off season, was a cog in Omaha’s lineup last year, finishing with a .264/.376/.394 triple slash line and a 113 OPS+ in 406 at bats. At age 27 now, Vega finds himself in AAA with nothing he can do to control that and 3 option years remaining on his eligibility.

With the move, Omaha seems to have committed itself to Luis Urbina. Urbina being the 22-year-old who the team selected in the rule 5 draft this past off-season. Who can really blame them? This spring, Urbina has posted a .381/.512/.556 triple slash in 80 plate appearances. While Spring training isn’t a good way to find solid stats that you can count on, Urbina has been solid at AAA the past 2 seasons, posting seasons of 176 and 161 OPS+.

As mentioned previously, also optioned today to AAA was back end reliever Fernando Villarreal.

Villarreal looks to be BBA ready with 14 stuff, so this is clearly an oversupply issue in the Omaha bullpen. Villarreal will likely be the first man up if an injury happens to occur, but otherwise he might be stuck waiting until next season for an opportunity in the BBA.

[Dington]

Urbina was such a nice pick.