Alex Presley Claimed off Waivers By the Houston Astros

Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Your Alex Presley ironic shirsey just got a little bit more ironic. On Thursday afternoon, the Houston Astros claimed the now former Minnesota Twins outfielder when he was put on waivers. In the grand scheme of things the loss of Alex Preley isn’t huge except for one thing… the Twins now appear to have no backup centerfielder.

Presley came to the Twins last year in the Justin Morneau to the Pittsburgh Pirates trade on August 31. Presley played in 28 ballgames for the Twins and started in 27 of them, all in centerfield. Last season, Presley also played in 29 ballgames for the Pittsburgh Pirates splitting time in the corner outfield positions.

Closing the book on Presley’s 28 game career with the Minnesota Twins, his batting line was .283/.336/.363 with 11 RBIs, one home run, one triple and four doubles.

Alex Presley will turn 29 in July.

Turning the attention back the Twins now interesting centerfield situation. Chris Parmelee was also put on waivers on Thursday, but he got through and will be going to Triple-A Rochester. This leaves only two guys on the projected Opening Day roster that could be a backup centerfielder, Eduardo Escobar and Jason Bartlett. Between the two of them they have 11 innings of MLB game experience in the outfield and Escobar played all 11 of those innings.

Another option would be bringing back Darin Mastroianni from the minors.

Many are speculating that this means the Twins are about to make a deal for an outfielder or claim one off of another team’s waivers, let’s hope so.