The Kansas City Royals made a shocking announcement following their 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins, designating Jeff Francoeur for assignment and promoting Johnny Giavotella from Triple-A, per Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star(thanks to Soria's Unibrow, Warden11 and Gabriel203 for starting the discussion).
Francoeur struck out against Minnesota Twins closer Glen Perkins in his presumptive last at-bat as a Royal. The rightfielder had been terrible this season, hitting .205/.249/.322 in 192 plate appearances. David Lough and Jarrod Dyson had taken most of Frenchy's playing time away, as he was mostly used in a platoon role the final month of his career.
Giavotella will get his third chance to earn the starting second base job, although he will probably split time with Elliot Johnson. Giavotella hit .289/.376/.425 in 330 plate appearances at Triple-A Omaha, which is good for a 108 wRC+. The second baseman has only hit .242/.271/.340 in 376 major-league plate appearances, so he will need to greatly improve upon that mark to deserve the starting role.
This is big news, so I'm sure we'll have more about the Francoeur DFA and Giavotella promotion in the coming days.