Most of the time, when a player signs a Minor League deal, it means teams do not want to gamble a guaranteed contract on an individual for various reasons.  This was the case for Felipe Lopez who was one season removed from posting a 310 avg.

He found himself a free-agent this offseason and was forced to chose between numerous Minor League deals.  Lopez eventually signed a deal with the Rays in February and failed to make the club out of the gate. Though he was quickly promoted when Evan Longoria went down with an injury.

Lopez has been a serviceable fill-in this season as he has hit .260 with 13 hits, two of those being home runs. But it is the other things that have gotten Lopez into trouble and into manager Joe Maddon’s dog house.

On April 9th, Lopez flung his bat at White Sox pitcher Chris Sale after hitting a home run. Maddon didn’t care for his actions as he said, “That’s not how we play. … We don’t do that here.”

Lopez continued his head scratching behavior as this past Wednesday he failed to run hard all the way to first.  His effort and hustle was called out by Maddon, as Maddon is a strong believer in hustling and playing the game the right way.

Knowing this, one would think that Lopez would run hard no matter what as he could be expendable when Longoria returns.  If you thought that, you would be wrong as Lopez failed to run to first in the 11th inning on a grounder that was eventually bobbled. Lopez was eventually pulled after the inning for “Lack of hustle.”

Don’t be surprised to see Lopez back in the unemployment line after yet another poor decision.

Information from Marc Topkin from the St. Petersburg Times.