Management Continues Mysteriously

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

We have zero idea if this matters to potential FAs or not. We can guess, but I doubt anyone here knows.

It pretty much never happens, right?  A performing vet getting fully benched?  That would seem to be a pretty strong indicator such a thing is frowned upon in baseball, for whatever reason.

 

Of course, there is plenty of wiggle room around that -- you can rest them more frequently (already happening with Suzuki), you could approach the player about it and maybe they will be cool with an even further reduction.  But I think the default is to try to place the player with another team rather than bench them. And if you fail at doing that, the player could assume the team didn't try hard enough to place him elsewhere.

 

Maybe Suzuki's situation -- clearing waivers -- made it clear enough that he would be amenable to a reduced role for the last month?  I wouldn't be surprised if Antony and Molitor have already expressed their interest to Suzuki in bringing him back for 2017, if they are still around, which could soften the blow.  (I'd still like to know if we offered to pay his remaining salary...)