Stock Ticker

Dustin Harris Elects Free Agency

The Astros announced Friday that outfielder Dustin Harris, whom they designated for assignment earlier in the week, cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A Sugar Land. He instead elected free agency and is now free to sign with any club.

Harris, 26, was a prospect of some note with the Rangers a few years back but has yet to break out in the majors. He’s received 102 plate appearances across parts of three seasons and has a .225/.307/.371 batting line (91 wRC+) in that time. That includes a career-high 52 plate appearances with Houston this season, during which he hit .233/.333/.302.

Harris has long been considered a bat-first prospect with a hit-over-power profile. Elements of that profile were apparent in his brief run with Houston. He fanned in only 13.5% of his plate appearances and drew walks at a stout 11.5% clip. Harris chased off the plate at a roughly league-average rate, but his contact rate on balls out of the zone was an enormous 81.3%. That’s clearly a tiny sample, but Harris’ time in parts of four Triple-A seasons shows similar trends. He’s a career .276/.366/.417 hitter at the top minor league level and has walked in 11.2% of his plate appearances against a lower-than-average 20.4% strikeout rate there. Those numbers come in a much larger sample of 1308 turns at the plate.

Though he was drafted as a first baseman (and got some looks at third base early in his pro career), Harris has since moved to the outfield on a near-exclusive basis. He has just 21 innings at first base over the past three seasons (majors and minors combined). Harris hasn’t played a single inning on the infield in the majors; he’s been primarily a left fielder (131 innings), with occasional appearances in right field (49 innings) and even briefer cameos in center (24 innings).

Harris has a keen eye at the plate and good bat-to-ball skills, but his defensive skill set is modest, as is his power output. He’s also out of minor league options. He’ll likely sign a minor league deal with a club seeking left-handed bats and/or outfield depth — a return to the Astros shouldn’t be ruled out — but if he’s added back to a major league roster at any point, he’ll have to stick or else once again be designated for assignment.

Source link

Get RawNews Daily

Stay informed with our RawNews daily newsletter email

Dustin Harris Elects Free Agency

My top FTSE 100 insurance stock fell 5.76% this week! Here’s what I’m doing

Here’s the dividend yield I get from my Stocks and Shares ISA

Diamondbacks Designate Alek Thomas For Assignment, Promote Ryan Waldschmidt