Cleveland Indians Acquire Former Top Prospect Michael Choice

Cleveland Indians Acquire Michael Choice

Today the Cleveland Indians have acquired outfielder Michael Choice from the Texas Rangers for cash.  Choice was designated for assignment earlier in the week by the Rangers after they acquired Will Venable from the San Diego Padres.  He will report to Triple-A and join the Columbus Clippers’ outfield.

Choice is a former first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics and top prospect in all of baseball.  He was traded to the Rangers in December 2013 along with Chris Bostick for Craig Gentry and Josh Lindblom (a deal that surprised some people).  Choice was ranked as a top 100 prospect in all of baseball multiple times by Baseball America, MLB.com, and Baseball Prospectus.  Baseball Prospectus ranked him as high as the 39th best prospect in baseball back before the 2013 season and a top 80 prospect as recently as 18 months ago.

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Unfortunately to this point the 25-year-old outfielder has not seen his potential and minor league success translate to the big leagues.  In parts of three seasons in the big leagues, he’s hit just .188/.253/.320 with nine home runs in 300 plate appearances, with the bulk of that playing time coming in 2013. He’s only appeared in one big league game this year for the Texas Rangers prior to the trade.

Despite this, he’s a nice buy-low trade guy for the Cleveland Indians. Choice does still have a minor league option left for 2016 so they can get a longer look at him still.  Can’t hurt to see if he can’t get back to being the player he was when he was hitting 30 HRs in A-ball back in 2011 and not the guy that’s hit 43 in the four years since.

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