It’s not often that a player gets traded in the final week of the season, but it happened Tuesday when the Braves traded backup infielder Gordon Beckham to the Giants for minor league infielder Rich Rodriguez.
Beckham, 30, will provide some depth in the remaining regular-season games for the Giants after Eduardo Nunez injured a hamstring Sunday on his 40th stolen base of the season. He cleared waivers and could be traded to any team, but Beckham won’t be eligible for the Giants’ postseason roster because the deal came after an Aug. 31 deadline.
Beckham will be a free agent this winter.
Rodriguez, 23, has played parts of six minor league seasons in the Giants organization, four of those at the rookie-league level and this season in high Single-A, where he hit just .174 (19-for-1o9) with one extra-base hit.
He’s played all infield positions and some at the outfield corners and has a .264 career average (217-for-821) with 18 doubles, two triples and 68 RBI in 264 minor league games.
Beckham, an Atlanta native and former first-round draft pick out of the University of Georgia, signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal with the Braves in December and produced only slightly better offensive statistics than he had in a career-worst 2015 season with the White Sox.
Beckham hit .217 with a .300 on-base percentage and .655 OPS in 85 games (273 plate appearances) for the Braves with 22 extra-base hits (five home runs) and 30 RBIs. After the All-Star break, he hit .158 (21-for-133) with two homers, 34 strikeouts and a .228 OBP.
