Why James Outman will not be Replaced by a Prospect

[Trov]

When James Outman made the 26 man roster, over Rodan people were a little shocked.  Rodan clearly had more upside.  Outman had a good rookie year, but outside that has been below replacement level player.  We have so many outfield prospects down in the minors, if you include Rodan, we have 4 or 5 in AAA, but 3 are hurt right now.  Outman has been downright terrible at the plate the year.  He has 4 hits in 33 AB, and an OPS+ of -2.  I really did not know it could go negative. 

So why do I say a prospect will not replace him?  It is simple, the roll he is filling will not be filled by a prospect.  He is a pinch runner and defensive replacement late in games. He is not amazing at either, in my opinion, but he is better defender than the starting corner guys, and he is 4 for 4 on stolen bases.  All that being said, because of his very limited roll, you will not send him down for a prospect to take his roll.  If you call up any of the outfielders from AAA it will be to get them to actually start and play regular time. Outman is worse than most likely any of them as a hitter.  But that is not why he is up at MLB level.  

Now, it is very possible that Outman gets DFA for one of the prospects if they want to move Wallner into bench roll, but Wallner does not fill the same holes that Outman does.  Outman may be less valuable than Henry Rowengartner at the plate, but that is not why he is up at MLB level.  He is here for the very limited roll he is filling.  You do not waste prospects times on that roll.  

Teams can build a 26 man roster with the best 13 hitters, or they can have 1 guy that is just simply there to help with defense or running at end of games.  It used to be when rosters were 25 men, you never had a guy like that, well at least when teams moved to 12 or 13 man pitching staffs in early 2000s.  We did have Chip Hale in early 90's, specifically in 1996, his sole roll was to pinch hit.  He had 3 games where he started, but played in 85 games, getting 98 plate appearances.  I always thought it was crazy for an AL team to have a pinch hitting specialist, but that is what he was. 

Point is, you do not take the last guy on the bench, the guy that you use for just very limited things, and swap him for a prospect.  You do not call up prospects to sit on bench and never play.  If any prospect comes up, odds are it will be at expense of Wallner at this point, and Outman will continue to do what he is doing. Sitting until inning 7+ to run or play defense for someone.