No. A DFA is a step before waivers in order to remove someone from the 40-man roster.
I think the Sox would love to remove Leon from the 25 man roster, but keep him in AAA. We don't have any catching depth!
I'd like to think that Sale is an adult and will be fine without a catcher he didn't have for the first five years of his big league career (not to mention the minors and prior). This sort of thing is part of life in the big leagues. He certainly looked fine yesterday pitching to Vazquez.
Lin, Hernandez, Travis, Chavis, Dalbec. I think the team is okay with reserve depth to not need to aggressively keep Swihart ready for a utility role. I also don't expect Holt's going anywhere. He strikes me as the new Wakefield...around as long as he is remotely useful and likely at a team friendly rate because he has no interest in leaving.
This is a great explanation of the process. I believe an additional consideration is that if Leon is not claimed and is assigned to the minors that he has the right to refuse the assignment and becomes a Free Agent. Not sure if that would affect guaranteed money in his contract or not.
I would think initially they're not going to tie any pitcher to a particular catcher and let situation dictate playing time. I expect the only pitcher they might be careful about is Sale. Not because he necessarily has a preference but because he notoriously doesn't call his own game. It might be better to have him work with one catcher or the other just for consistency on that end. The other pitchers are more apt to shake off a pitch and take ownership of how they attack hitters, so might be less affected by swapping back and forth between the two.
He pitched almost a third of his innings to Vazquez last year, and the results were just fine, though not quite as otherworldly as when Leon was catching.
Swihart also has not only positional but athletic versatility, because he can be used as a pinch-runner. He was the fifth-fastest player on the Sox last year by FG's Spd metric (after the three starting OFs and Lin), and the fastest catcher (regardless of playing time) in the American League. That has practical value in a straightforward way: if Vazquez gets on in a late & close situation, Cora can pinch-run for him and only use one bench asset.
Plus Wright can also be used as a pinch runner once he gets back from suspension.
YAY! I just can't let go of his upside. Not for a catcher who, while I respect and appreciate Leon, is probably sub-replacement at age 30.
If he clears waivers and ends up in Pawtucket, that means he won't be on the 40-man roster. So yes, they could call him up and add him back to the roster if need be, but to move him back down would require the same DFA/waiver process over again.
apparently the CBA was changed recently.
He declines it, he loses out on his salary (not guaranteed until Opening Day). Seems reasonable to expect he'll accept the assignment considering the alternative isn't going to pay him $2.4M.
Or...sung to, well, you know...
So does that mean Rusney is grandfathered in? Or does his salary count against the luxury tax too?
He is grandfathered...so long as he's not called up. At which point, his salary would count for the remainder of the contract.
I need to flag how awesome this is. Yeah, saying "oh wow" isn't good main board posting, but genius is genius and needs to be acknowledged as such.
