Surprise Callups

[Snodgrass'Muff]

The prolific @Cuzittt has a great series going on the dot com about surprise callups. Figured it was worth catching the board up and creating a place for people to discuss them. They're broken down by division.

AL West

The Rangers have not been afraid to bring youth to their team in the past few seasons, with Rougned Odor,Joey Gallo, Hanser Alberto, Keone Kela, and DeShields all getting debuts in their early 20s. Outfielder Lewis Brinson, turns 22 in May, positioned himself as a possible call up in 2016, by putting up a line of .332/.403/.601 with 20 homers, 8 triples and 18 steals while jumping from A-League High Desert to AAA Round Rock last year. Brinson’s play in centerfield was largely flawless: he committed a pair of errors in 74 games.

AL Central

Trayce Thompson jumped up the White Sox prospect ranks in 2012 by batting .253/.328/.482 with 62 extra base hits between A-League Winston-Salem, AA Birmingham and AAA Charlotte as a 21-year-old. However, the outfielder stalled for two years in AA Birmingham, with his batting average plummeting to .229 in 2013 and barely improving to .237 in 2014. Although the White Sox put Thompson on the 40-man roster in 2015, few expected him to make his major league debut. However, after putting up a line of .260/.304/.441 with 40 extra base hits for Charlotte, Thompson entered the big leagues in August and batted .295/.363/.533 over 44 games in the final two months of the season. Thompson was moved to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the off-season in theTodd Frazier trade.

AL East

The 2015 Red Sox predisposition for injury saw a number of players making surprise debuts in the majors.Blake Swihart became the primary catcher after Ryan Hanigan went down. Travis Shaw appeared in 65 games due to suspension (David Ortiz), injury (Pablo Sandoval) and trade (Mike Napoli). And the pitching staff’s inability to stay healthy forced the debuts of Eduardo Rodriguez, Henry Owens, Brian Johnson, Noe Ramirez, and Jonathan Aro.

NL West

While Nick Ahmed appears to be a good, possibly very good, defensive shortstop, his offensive line of .226/.275/.359 last season was underwhelming – even though it was an improvement over his numbers in his first go around with the Diamondbacks in 2014. The poor offense may open up a spot for Jack Reinheimer, who was acquired last June from the Seattle Mariners in the Mark Trumbo deal. In his first AA season, Reinheimer put up a combined line of .270/.342/.363 with 24 doubles and 21 steals with Jackson and Mobile of the Southern League.

Two more of these coming in the next few days. We'll add them as they are published.