Guardians Sign Anthony Alford To Minor League Contract

The Guardians are in settlement with outfielder Anthony Alford on a minor league deal, tweets GuardsInsider. The 27-year-old elected free company over the weekend after being outrighted for the second time by the Pirates.

Alford was a second-round decide of the Blue Jays again in 2012. A wonderful athlete with a uncommon mixture of uncooked energy and pace, he developed right into a high prospect after posting robust numbers within the low minors. Baseball America slotted him among the many recreation’s 100 finest minor league abilities getting into each the 2016 and 2017 seasons, pegging him because the Jays’ most promising prospect throughout the first of these years.

Sadly, Alford has but to provide the type of numbers evaluators believed he’d be able to. That’s largely because of accidents, as he’s missed a while in every season since 2016 (together with a two-week IL stint final month due to a proper wrist sprain). A 2017 hamate fracture in his left hand and a fractured proper elbow in 2020 have confirmed essentially the most vital maladies, however Alford has additionally had IL stints for hamstring and again points throughout his profession.

When he has been on the sector, the right-handed hitter has run into his share of strikeout points. Alford has fanned in 37.9% of his 240 MLB plate appearances, leading to a meager .209/.275/.368 line. He additionally has an alarming 29.2% strikeout share in elements of 5 seasons at Triple-A, the place he’s a profession .262/.349/.427 hitter. Between accidents and swing-and-miss considerations, he’s solely performed in 102 MLB video games regardless of suiting up on the highest degree in every of the previous six years.

The Guardians have steadily been stricken by a scarcity of outfield depth in current seasons. That hasn’t been an issue up to now in 2022, with Steven Kwan, Myles Straw and Josh Naylor off to glorious begins (and Oscar Mercado taking part in alright as effectively). Nonetheless, there’s little hurt in taking a flier on a reasonably younger participant who was as soon as very highly-regarded and may cowl all three outfield spots. Alford will head to Triple-A Columbus as non-roster depth.