Seeking trade, Orioles waive infielder villar
Slugg ing middle infielder Jonathan Villar was placed on outright waivers by Baltimore on Wednesday, according to multiple media reports. The move was made to beat the non-tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players on Monday.
According to MASN Sports, which first reported the move, the Orioles were unable to find an acceptable trade with another team for the 28-year-old Villar.
The switch-hitting Dominican is coming off his best statistica l year with the Orioles, including career highs in hits (176), home runs (24) and RBIS (73) while batting .274. He also had 40 stolen bases, which ranked third in the American Leag ue.
The Athletic reported the rebuilding Orioles are disinterested in paying the sa lar y he will likely be awarded after going through the arbitration process. By putting him on waivers now, they are essentia lly of fering his contract to the rest of baseball until Monday. If no team chooses to do that then Villar goes back to the Orioles. Golf: wil Besseling shot a 7-under 65 Thursday to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship — the European Tour’s 2020 season-opening event. Besseling made six birdies, an eagle and just one bogey at Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa, to sit one stroke ahead of Garrick Porteous, Pablo Larrazabal and Keith horne. Obituary: John Mckissick, whose 621 victories at South Carolina’s Summerville High made him the nation’s winningest football coach at any level, died Thursday at age 93. The longtime coach retired in 2014 after 62 seasons. Mckissick had a career record of 621-155-13 at Summerville from 1952 through 2014. He won 10 South Carolina state championships, the last one coming in 1998.