Crawdad Chronicles 35.3 -Familiar Face Back in New Orleans

[JimBob2232]

New Orleans had a big gaping hole in their Infield. Besides Yancy Cravat holding down 1B, and Reynaldo Ruiz holding down SS, there really was no surefire winner for the 2B and 3B Slot.

FA Claudio Chavez has shown enough in the young season, hitting .385 in 40 plate appearances to make him look like the favorite for 3B. Both Ruiz and Chavez are also quality second basemen, but that still meant they needed a 3rd man in the infield.

Last year, Gilbert Hansen played 2B, and hit .253/.281/.396, numbers that arent horrible, but better suited to a backup role. His .233/.278/.342 start to 2035 wasnt promising.

New Orleans considered brinign up 3B Julio Montoya from AAA to hold down the hot corner, but they didnt feel he is quite ready yet.

So New Orleans, sitting 21M under the salary cap (but over the 2036 projected cap) went shopping.

What they came back with is Alex Ramirez, who started his career in New Orleans. After 2 disapointing seasons, New Orleans gave up on him and sent him to Brooklyn in a package that brought back SP Yoshimatsu Yamaguchi and a bunch of other players that havent amonted to much.

Ramirez on the other hand has had a very good career since leaving New Orleans. The Crawdads hope he can put history behind him and help out as the everyday 2B or 3B.

In exchange for Ramirez, the Crawdads gave up top prospect Floyd Davis from AA