The Milwaukee Brewers officially placed reliever Salomon Torres on the voluntary retired list Tuesday after receiving his paperwork. Torres announced in early November that he planned to retire but did not send his retirement papers to the team until now.
"Hopefully, with that, any rumor or speculation about me unretiring will come to an end," Torres said in an e-mail. Torres said he had been busy with other things and was delayed in filing the papers. To cover themselves against a change of mind, the Brewers exercised their $3.75 million option on Torres' contract for 2009.
Torres, 36, took over as closer for the faltering Eric Gagn? in late May and was a stalwart, saving a career-high 28 games in 32 chances from that point (he was 28 for 35 overall). He led the Brewers with 71 appearances and 80 innings out of the bullpen, compiling a 7-5 record and 3.49 earned run average.
The move allowed the Brewers to remove Torres from their 40-man roster, which now stands at 35.
Scouting changes: The Brewers reassigned Jim Rooney from minor-league pitching coordinator to roving cross-checker in the scouting department. Rooney oversaw the pitchers in the farm system for the past five seasons.
In addition, Jeremy Booth was named area supervisor in southern Texas and Louisiana, replacing Brian Sankey, who switches to the Northeast region. Booth scouted last year for the Minnesota Twins.
Tim Collinsworth also joined the scouting staff as an area supervisor in western Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas. He scouted last season for Boston.
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