More 40-Degree Days: O's ship off Brandon Snyder, acquire Jai Miller

From the Press Release:

The Orioles today announced that they have acquired OF JAI MILLER from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for cash considerations and have also traded INF BRANDON SNYDER to the Texas Rangers in exchange for cash considerations.

Miller, 26, batted .276/.368/.588 with 32 home runs, 88 RBI and 16 stolen bases without being caught in 110 games for Triple-A Sacramento in 2011. He also appeared in seven games for the A’s, going 3-for-12 with a home run.

Miller has batted .271/.351/.516 with 85 home runs and 253 RBI in 423 games at the Triple-A level in the last four seasons. His major league time also includes 20 games with the Kansas City Royals in 2010, when he batted .236/.300/.345. He made his major league debut in 2008 with the Marlins.

"Jai Miller has the power, speed, base stealing skills and good athletic ability to be an asset in our outfield as he competes for a spot on our ballclub this spring," said Orioles Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations DAN DUQUETTE.

Snyder, 25, batted .261/.312/.406 in 114 games with Triple-A Norfolk in 2011. He also appeared in six games for the Orioles, going 3-for-13.

The Orioles 40-man roster remains full with these moves.

Neither of these moves are earth shakers, but I was always fond of Brandon Snyder. He was picked in the first round of the 2005 draft but could never quite hit enough as a corner infielder to make it work. I still would have liked for him to have been given more of a chance, but that's possibly an emotional response more than a logical one. He grew up in Virginia as an Orioles fan and is fun to read on Twitter, but I guess those aren't the things that make it worth keeping a player around.

There was a brief time many years ago when Brandon Snyder's mom posted on Camden Chat, that was kind of neat. And of course there was his fall league blog that kept us entertained (well, kinda). And there was that time Camden Chatter jobe asked him at FanFest about his favorite meal to cook, and after a brief look of surprise he began talking about salmon. Good times.

Anyway, best of luck to Brandon Snyder.

New Oriole Jai Miller was drafted in the fourth round of the 2003 draft by the Florida Marlins and has a negligible 72 major-league plate appearances. He has spent most of the last four seasons playing in the Pacific Coast League where he's hit quite well, and word on the street is that he's a solid defender. It's not a bad addition to a team whose outfield depth is as woeful as the Orioles, but it probably won't matter much in the long run. At the very least he's a better option as center field back up than Matt Angle.