Golden Jack and a Dong Dinger Today's Breakfast Specials at Fitch Park

Arizona Phil 09/23/2023 - 09:58 pm (view)

jdrnym: 

As you know, the abbreviation "DFA" stands for "Designated for Assignment." 

There are three types of assignments: 

1. Trade Assignment (when a player is traded from one MLB club to another)
2. Outright Assignment (when a player is sent to the club's minor league Domestic Reserve List after Outright Assignment Waivers have been secured).
3. Optional Assignment (when a player is optioned to the minors, subject to being recalled at a later time). 

So when a player is Designated for Assignment, the player can either be traded, outrighted to the minors, or optioned to the minors. 

Normally a player is not Designated for Assignment and then optioned to the minors, because the club could just option the player to the minors immediately without a DFA.

Back in the day It was not that unusual for a player to be Designated for Assignment so that the Optional Assignment Waivers could be secured, but Optional Assignment Waivers were eliminated in 2016. 

However, with the new five option limit whereby a player can (with a couple of exceptions) be optioned to the minors no more than five times in a given season before Outright Assignment Waivers must be secured (Outright Assignment Waivers, even though it is for the purpose of an Optional Assignment), it might be necessary for a club to DFA a player to clear a spot on the MLB 26-man roster (MLB 28-man roster in September) and to allow for the two days (actually 47 hours) required to run a player through waivers.

During the two days during which the player is on waivers, the player cannot be returned to the MLB 40-man roster and optioned to the minors after he has been Designated for Assignment unless he is not claimed off waivers - AND - he was not replaced on the MLB 40-man roster by another player after being Designated for Assignment.  

However, in the case of Jordan Luplow, he had - NOT - been optioned to the minors five times in the 2023 season prior to be optioned to AAA Rochester on 9/18, so the Twins did not have to DFA Luplow in order to secure Outright Assignment Waivers so that he could be optioned to the minors a sixth time.   

But because he was Designated for Assignment and not replaced on the 40 by another player after the DFA, the Twins could option him to the minors (and return him to the 40) even after he was Designated for Assignment, because an Optional Assignment is one of the three types of assignments.

So Luplow was Designated for Assignment even though he didn't need to be, and then the Twins returned him to their MLB 40-man roster and optioned him to the minors a couple of days later (which they can do, since Luplow wasn't replaced on the 40 by another player after he was Designated for Assignment). 

So what the Twins did (DFA Luplow and then option him to the minors a couple of days later) was within the rules. It's just that it doesn't make a lot of sense. 

So I will offer the most logical reason I can think of to explain why the Twins did this:  

They DFA'd Luplow because they intended to reinstate Chris Paddack from the 60-day IL, but then Carlos Correa suddenly needed to go on the 10-day IL and so they decided they wanted to keep Luplow on the 40-man roster and didn't want to risk losing him off waivers or by him electing free-agency after being outrighted.

Also, if Luplow was outrighted instead of being optioned, he would no longer be automatically eligible to play in the post-season (except as a possible injury replacement). And then Royce Lewis went on the IL, too, so the Twins ended up needing Luplow after all,  and recalled him just a couple of days after he was optioned. 

Luplow has Article XX-D rights (he has been outrighted to the minors previously in his career), so he would had the right to elect free-agency after he was outrighted. There was also the possibility that he would have been claimed of waivers, and obviously the Twins felt they might need his RH bat after losing Correa and with Lewis having left a game with a hamstring injury that led to an IL assignment. 

So that all I've got. That is the only thing that makes sense. The Twins DFA'd Luplow because they intended to replace him on the 40 with another player (probably Paddack) and hoped that they would be able to run him through waivers and that he wouldn't get claimed and that he would accept an Outright Assignment, but then they changed their minds, returned him to the 40 (because he hadn't been replaced on the 40 by another player after he was Designated for Assignment), and optioned him to the minors. 

crunch 09/23/2023 - 09:00 pm (view)

CIN out here blowing a 9-0 lead they built through 3 innings.  9-9 tie in the 7th.

crunch 09/23/2023 - 09:05 pm (view)

boxburger 10d IL, k.thompson back up.  it's his right forearm (again).

crunch 09/23/2023 - 09:12 pm (view)

merryweather got out of it, but he loaded the bases with 1 out.  of course ross got cuas up in the pen...thankfully he didn't need to come in.

looks like cuas gets the 9th.

crunch 09/23/2023 - 09:46 pm (view)

4ip 2h 0bb 6k, 49 pitches.  no idea why they're giving the pen the last 2 innings when he's out there dealing like this and only threw 49 pitches.  he was supposed to pitch tomorrow and he's fresh.

crunch 09/23/2023 - 09:52 pm (view)

...and assad is now a pen arm, evidently...odd move given recent success.  i guess wicks starts tomorrow?

crunch 09/22/2023 - 09:16 pm (view)

ARZ, MIA, and CIN all lose.  nice.

crunch 09/22/2023 - 09:54 pm (view)

stroman is now the saturday starter...okay, then.

jdrnym 09/22/2023 - 09:52 pm (view)

Phil,

Jordan Luplow was DFA'd by the Twins on Monday and was ultimately optioned and then recalled today. I didn't think that was possible since optional waivers were eliminated years ago. How did that work for the Twins?

crunch 09/22/2023 - 09:47 pm (view)

it's september and i have a legit reason to root for CIN, MIA, and ARZ to lose games.  2023 is an interesting time for baseball.