Arizona Diamondbacks: Steven Souza Jr. takes aim at former club
By Jason Evans
Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Steven Souza Jr. took a shot on twitter at his former club, the Tampa Bay Rays
The Miami Marlins made all the headlines during the off-season in Florida with their purge of players, but the Tampa Bay Rays had their own fire sale, one that extended into Spring Training.
Two of those players were Steven Souza Jr. who was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Corey Dickerson who was designated for assignment during spring training and later dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Souza has yet to play in a regular season game for the Diamondbacks, as he is recovering from a pectoral injury suffered during spring training. With all that recovery time, Souza had some time to take to Twitter and take a shot at his former club.
Corey Dickerson is hitting .324 and was DFA’d, and was a 2017 all star, and was only making 5.9 million! Pirates got a good one!
— Steven Souza (@SouzaJr) April 10, 2018
Souza was taking a page out of our president’s twitter playbook with all those exclamation points. Sad!
Is Dickerson better than Denard Span? Yes. Was Dickerson an All-Star last year? Sure was. However, Dickerson in the second half of the year found his numbers in a free fall like the stock market when a trade war with China is mentioned.
Next: Did the Pirates find their new ace in Taillon?
In the first half of 2017, Dickerson hit .312 with a .908 OPS. In the second half? .241 with a .690 OPS. The Rays decided they didn’t want to pay Dickerson the $5.6 million he was due this year on a club that is rebuilding and not focused on really contending this year.
There’s no real reason for Souza to take shots at his old club. He should be focused on getting his pectoral muscle right and getting back on the field to ensure the Arizona Diamondbacks get a good one. Get your house in order, before you take a shot at someone else’s.