The Associated Press reports that the Rays have claimed infielder Josh Wilson off waivers from the Washington Nationals. Wilson has had just 29 major league at bats, with 19 of those coming so far this season with the Nationals. The 86th overall pick of the Florida Marlins in the 1999 amateur draft, Wilson has over 3,300 career minor league at bats and spent the entirety of last season with the Colorado Rockies' AAA Colorado Springs affiliate, where he hit 307/.376/.475 in 335 at bats. He came to the Rockies organization in a trade in early January of 2006; he had just come off an 11 game major league stint with the Marlins in the previous year. He was signed by Washington on November 6th of last year.
Wilson was designated for assignment by Washington two days ago by the Nationals. Since he was claimed off waivers by the Rays, he needs to occupy a spot on the team's 40 man roster for the move to be valid. As of yet, the Rays have not announced a corresponding move that would free up said spot. The 26 year old has a career minor league line of .281/.342/.419.
Update [2007-5-10 16:48:58 by Patrick L. Kennedy]: Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune is on it, and he suspects that the move was made to allow the Rays to send SS Ben Zobrist down to AAA Durham, where he can accumulate regular playing time. He also adds that Wilson is expected to join the team this evening, and travel with the Rays to Toronto for their weekend series with the Jays. Once again, a corresponding roster move has not even been speculated to allow for Wilson's presence on the major league roster.
Update [2007-5-10 18:59:8 by Patrick L. Kennedy]: Obviously, in light of the news that Juan Salas' 40 man roster spot was not filled in the last week when he was placed on the restricted list, the Rays do have an open 40 man spot that they will use to add Wilson onto the roster. All that remains to be seen is who goes down to Durham to free up a 25 man roster spot, and that will almost certainly be SS Ben Zobrist.
And indeed, we do have a 'Best Face' candidate as R.J. points out. Check out our new pirate infielder after the jump.
