The Jays acquired Fred Lewis for a player to be named later or cash today. Jeremy Reed was returned to Las Vegas and Dustin McGowan goes on the 60 day DL. Lewis will be a bench player per the tweets from the Rogers Centre tonight.
Lewis fills AA's desire to get more speed on the bench, if not into the lineup. 2008 was Lewis's best year, he hit .282 that season with 51 walks. Lewis fell out of favour last season and the Giants have been looking to move him. Lewis was on a AAA injury rehab until today and played against Las Vegas this week.
Here is a report on Lewis from April 1, this from the Giants perspective:
Lewis probably will start the season on the disabled list — that is, if the Giants decide to keep him around at all. Hindered by a rib injury, Lewis was unable to do much more than running work Thursday night when the Giants returned to AT&T after six weeks in Arizona.
"Running doesn't bother me at all," Lewis said.
Swinging the bat is a different story. Lewis said he planned on taking a few swings off a batting tee Thursday night but acknowledged he'll need more than that to get ready for opening day Monday in Houston.
"We're not sure if he's going to be ready. I've talked to Freddy about that,'' Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Could he start the season on the DL? Sure. We're not going to push him. We'll have a better idea in a few days."
Even when Lewis regains his health, his future is murky. He is out of minor league options, so he remains a candidate to be traded or released.
Such a move would complete a long fall for the outfielder whose hold on the starting left field job lasted until last June 11. He started only four of the Giants' final 45 games and hit just .091 (2-for-22) after Aug. 30.
As a bench player Lewis can be a late inning defensive replacement or can cover the outfield when Bautista has to play third base. Is Lewis better than Jeremy Reed? I don't know, he was highly regarded a couple of years ago but Lewis is 29 now.
This move also means that either Mike McCoy or Randy Ruiz will go down to Vegas when Aaron Hill comes off the DL.
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