Brewers Lose OF Rymer Liriano to White Sox on Waivers

The Chicago White Sox announced via Twitter earlier today that they had claimed outfielder Rymer Liriano off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers. Liriano spent the entire season on the disabled list after suffering facial fractures in a spring training game when he was hit with a fastball from Matt West, then with the Dodgers.

Liriano suffered from concussion-like symptoms and didn’t play at all in the majors or minor this season, having only recently resumed baseball activity. He played in the club’s instructional league and is currently playing with Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter League, where he has two singles and five walks through four games played.

I had initially identified Liriano as a potential target in January, days before the Brewers acquired him from the Padres. I was rather excited about the 25 year old’s potential (he even ranked among the bottom third of the Brewers’ top 30 prospects until midseason) and had he been healthy, he would have certainly gotten an extended look at the big league level this year. Slingin’ David Stearns clearly thought this was an opportune time to try and sneak Liriano through outright waivers, but apparently he miscalculated.

Unfortunately Rymer Liriano’s career in Milwaukee is now over before it even really began. Liriano can at least take solace in the fact that he accrued a year of service time and MLB minimum pay while on the disabled list. As Curt Hogg suggested, the White Sox probably only claimed him to try and make up for the Brewers stealing Junior Guerra last winter. Anyway, here’s wishing Liriano the best of luck in the future.