Daniel Nava claimed off waivers by Tampa Bay Rays

(Photo: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports) 
Eric D. Schabell
Contributing Writer

It was a nice story, Daniel Nava making it up through the ranks of baseball from nothing to claim a 2013 World Series Ring with the Red Sox.

How fast that can change.

As announced by Jon Heyman on Twitter this morning, he was claimed off of waivers by the Rays:



With the Red Sox Nava spent most of his time platooning and as a corner outfielder resigned to being a switch-hitting bench player. He only appeared in 29 games for the Red Sox this season and has been struggling with injuries.

MLBTradeRumors reports that the Rays are hoping for a bounce back by Nava and that they will be taking on around $617K of his $1.85MM salary for 2015. They will control his for two more years via arbitration without expecting much of a pay raise.

This season Nava was only at the plate for 66 at-bats, producing a .152 AVG and .442 OPS. It was such a small sample size you really can't compare it with his 2013 season when he compiled a .303 AVG and .831 OPS over 134 at-bats.

Most likely the Rays are looking to fill the hole left by David DeJesus who was traded.

Post a comment or via twitter @erics_redsox with your thoughts.

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