Adalberto Mejia DFAd

[jokin]

 

It’s your last two words that resonate with me.

How would you like to be told you are moving, every couple of months? I know it’s part of the deal right now??? .

But maybe the players see it different.

 

These two words resonate with me:

Oliver Drake

[PseudoSABR]

 

I'll say what I say every time some team claims one of our guys - the rules should be changed to be more like Rule-5, where the new team needs (say for the rest of the season) to offer the player back to the original team first, who can then resume the waiver/DFA process as though the gratuitous claim had never happened. Angels want to stash Mejia at AAA? Hey, so did we. Way too much game-playing going on with these claims.

I had the same thought tonight on the unfairness of the Angels potentially being able to stach Mejia.  I hadn't even thought of the Rule 5 method; good idea.

 

Though my OOTP team would take a hit if your rule were put in practice. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Do they collect MLB pay during the waiver wire period?

Yes. Players in DFA limbo get MLB pay/benefits/service time during that time.

[Otto von Ballpark]

And Mejia's short-term gain is some other player's short-term loss. The Angels weren't going to run with a 24-man roster. I don't see the net benefit to "the players".

Actually the Twins still haven't replaced Mejia on the 40-man roster. It's not MLB service time and generally not MLB pay, but still increased pay and benefits. A rule change that makes it easier to outright players will create more of these unfilled 40-man spots and hurt the "the players" as a whole (even if I don't think looking at "the players" as a whole is necessarily the right way to view this issue).

[Otto von Ballpark]

Seriously, entering this season, Mejia had already been under complete club control for almost 8 years, with a meager 1 year and 52 days of MLB time in that span. (And he's one of the "lucky" ones, having been added to the 40-man as soon as he was Rule 5 eligible, and without a 4th option year.)

 

And now, some of you want to extend that to 9 years with up to an extra year at the end, an extra year in the player's prime, spent back off the 40-man roster with lower pay/benefits and a reduced chance to make it back to MLB?

 

If you are concerned that teams don't have enough control over these players, keep in mind an extra year before Rule 5 eligibility was already added in ~2006 or so. Mejia has already given his club an extra year of control over the same class of player from the previous generation. Do you think the next generation should give an additional year? When does it stop?

 

If the Giants/Twins decide they don't want Mejia on their 40-man roster, after 8 years of exclusive control, then I say it is time to let Mejia get what he can under the current system, even if it just table scrap slices of MLB pay and service time from other orgs. (Which can add up -- Oliver Drake parlayed it into 2 whole years.) At that point, my primary concern as a fan is with the player is Mejia's position, more than teams and even more than players with less experience (although I am certainly in favor of expanding pay and benefits for those players as well).

[Otto von Ballpark]

If you really want an extra year of club control, you could propose an extra option year, or maybe just a 4th option year for all players instead of only a few. That would at least avoid encouraging more outrighting off the 40-man roster.

 

Of course, either change (reverting control of DFA'd players, or adding an extra option year) would need to be negotiated with the players. Increased pay and benefits for 40-man players would be a logical place to compromise, but I suspect MLB teams might reject it -- by the 4th option year, most teams probably want a crack at other team's players, as under the current system, rather than more control of their own guys on the bubble.

[mikelink45]

The Orioles could use him.  He could fit right in there and have a chance to stretch out to be a starter again. 

[stringer bell]

It wouldn’t surprise me either way on Mejía, someone might claim him, but maybe not. If he ends up in the minors, he will get a chance to pitch regularly and I would expect he’ll get at least one more MLB opportunity.

[USAFChief]

I bet if you asked Mejia if he'd rather go through the DFA process multiple times, and get claimed each time, or go through the process once and not get claimed, he'd opt for the multiple claims, where he's on a 40 man each time.

 

And it also benefits MLB because it potentially levels out the talent.

[stringer bell]

The rub on Mejía is that he can't be optioned so he has to be on a major league 25-man roster. Eventually, a spot will be found where either he gets regular work or is outrighted to the the minors where he gets regular work. If he is outrighted to the minors, he will have to earn his chance at promotion where the club will have to add him back to the 40-man roster. 

 

The inflexibility of being "out of options" had a great deal to do with the DFAs of Mejía, Morin, and Magill. Littell, Duffey, Harper, Stashak, Smeltzer, Stewart and Poppen all could be sent down and recalled in ten days. Switching out the multiple innings guys certainly makes sense.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Mejia claimed again, this time by the Cardinals:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/07/cardinals-claim-adalberto-mejia-waivers-angels.html

[stringer bell]

It looks like the merry-go-round will continue until someone can outright him. 

[Vanimal46]

Mejia claimed again, this time by the Cardinals:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/07/cardinals-claim-adalberto-mejia-waivers-angels.html

Mejia DFA'd again by the Cardinals. Being in DFA purgatory sucks.

[Vanimal46]

[yarnivek1972]

So, does he go through the entire waiver process every time? Or, for example, have the Twins, Angels and Cardinals and anyone who already passed given up their right to make a claim this year?

[ashbury]

So, does he go through the entire waiver process every time? Or, for example, have the Twins, Angels and Cardinals and anyone who already passed given up their right to make a claim this year?

There have definitely been players who've gone back and forth. As long as there's room on the 40-man roster, anyone can spin the roulette wheel! (I think strictly speaking, it's not even necessary to put the player on the 25-man, you could just start a new waiver process - but as a practical matter, perhaps, This Is Just Not Done.)

[Vanimal46]

So, does he go through the entire waiver process every time? Or, for example, have the Twins, Angels and Cardinals and anyone who already passed given up their right to make a claim this year?

Twins and Angels can claim him again if he falls to them. Kennys Vargas dealt with the same DFA battle a couple of years ago before he came back to the Twins AAA team.

[stringer bell]

The key here is that he must be on both the 25- and 40-man rosters. Can’t be sent directly to the minors.

[70charger]

 

There have definitely been players who've gone back and forth. As long as there's room on the 40-man roster, anyone can spin the roulette wheel! (I think strictly speaking, it's not even necessary to put the player on the 25-man, you could just start a new waiver process - but as a practical matter, perhaps, This Is Just Not Done.)

 

I doubt it's common, and it may be considered bad form, I don't know, but the Twins and Reds did this dance last year.

 

Kennys Vargas got waived in March, claimed by the Reds, waived by the Reds two days later, then claimed by the Twins. 

 

The Twins then outrighted him, and the Reds (or anyone else) decided not take another shot. That's when he went to Japan.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Damn, that's a really interesting question. I believe they'd *have* to receive MLB pay because it's not as if you're going to give an eight year vet MiLB pay for a few days, nor is that player going to go without pay.

 

The more I think about it, that player is still under control of the waiving team until he is taken by another team. I have to believe that he receives standard pay until something changes (ie. another team acquires him and demotes him).

a player DFA’d gets removed immediately from the 25 and 40 man roster, but contracts are fully guaranteed correct? Even after release the major league player gets their contract. So Bert is still getting his from the Twins. Whatever team picks him up pays a pro rated major league minimun

 

If a player is on the 40 man but with a minor league assignment, they get a bump in pay up from standard minor league pay something like a hundred k, right? Those guys can be DFA’d off the 40 but still get optionally assigned to a minor league team and get a pay cut. How does that work?

[ashbury]

a player DFA’d gets removed immediately from the 25 and 40 man roster, but contracts are fully guaranteed correct? Even after release the major league player gets their contract. So Bert is still getting his from the Twins. Whatever team picks him up pays a pro rated major league minimun

 

If a player is on the 40 man but with a minor league assignment, they get a bump in pay up from standard minor league pay something like a hundred k, right? Those guys can be DFA’d off the 40 but still get optionally assigned to a minor league team and get a pay cut. How does that work?

If a player is taken on a waiver claim, as is the case here, the new team picks up the contract. It's only if the player passes through waivers, and the current team then chooses to release him, that a new team can pick up a bargain.

 

/ edit - of course, for anyone on a MLB-minimum contract, such as Mejia has, the business of what get pro-rated is moot. If eventually he were simply cut, and then someone else picked him up, everything is based on the minimum and what remains of the season.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

(I think strictly speaking, it's not even necessary to put the player on the 25-man, you could just start a new waiver process - but as a practical matter, perhaps, This Is Just Not Done.)

No, you do need to roster the player for at least 1 MLB game (or 48 hours, whichever comes first):

 

"8. A player acquired off waivers cannot be Designated for Assignment for at least 48 hours after the club is awarded the waiver claim or until the player has been on the claiming club's MLB Active List for at least one MLB regular season game (whichever comes first)."

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3535

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I doubt it's common, and it may be considered bad form, I don't know, but the Twins and Reds did this dance last year.

 

Kennys Vargas got waived in March, claimed by the Reds, waived by the Reds two days later, then claimed by the Twins. 

 

The Twins then outrighted him, and the Reds (or anyone else) decided not take another shot. That's when he went to Japan.

Not quite -- Vargas spent the 2018 season at Rochester on that outright assignment first.

 

Players with less than 3 years service time who have never been outrighted before can't refuse the outright assignment. That's what likely gives guys like Vargas any value, in terms of waiver claims -- the potential to stash them in the minors for up to a year off the 40-man roster.

 

Once the season was up, and the Twins hadn't yet put him back on the 40-man roster, Vargas was a 6 year minor league free agent. Then he signed in Japan.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

a player DFA’d gets removed immediately from the 25 and 40 man roster, but contracts are fully guaranteed correct? Even after release the major league player gets their contract. So Bert is still getting his from the Twins. Whatever team picks him up pays a pro rated major league minimun

If a player is on the 40 man but with a minor league assignment, they get a bump in pay up from standard minor league pay something like a hundred k, right? Those guys can be DFA’d off the 40 but still get optionally assigned to a minor league team and get a pay cut. How does that work?

Pre-arbitration contracts, like Mejia's, aren't really "guaranteed" at the MLB minimum rate. Those players get the MLB salary while they are in MLB, but get a lesser salary if they are sent to the minor leagues during the season. (I assume it doesn't matter whether they get to the minors by option or outright assignment.)

 

If such players are released during the season, they can get the rest of the contract -- but at the minor league rate, rather than the MLB rate. (And I assume if they sign elsewhere, it offsets.) If they are released before the season, they get some termination pay.

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3534

 

Of course, as noted by others, Mejia has yet to be released or even outrighted to the minors, so none of this applies to him quite yet anyway.

[ashbury]

 

No, you do need to roster the player for at least 1 MLB game (or 48 hours, whichever comes first):

 

"8. A player acquired off waivers cannot be Designated for Assignment for at least 48 hours after the club is awarded the waiver claim or until the player has been on the claiming club's MLB Active List for at least one MLB regular season game (whichever comes first)."

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3535

Good info.

[Otto von Ballpark]

The Angels claimed Mejia back again:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/08/angels-claim-adalberto-mejia-waivers-cardinals.html

[Vanimal46]

The Angels claimed Mejia back again:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/08/angels-claim-adalberto-mejia-waivers-cardinals.html

At least he knows what hotel to stay at in Anaheim!

[Dman]

 

The Angels claimed Mejia back again:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/08/angels-claim-adalberto-mejia-waivers-cardinals.html

 

So will they keep him on the 40 man this time or will this circus continue?  Seems like the Angels could use pitching even if it isn't that great.  Personally I think the guy is just a tweak away from being a decent pen arm anyway.  Tough part is you will have to live with some tough innings before he gets better.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

So will they keep him on the 40 man this time or will this circus continue?

Good news for Mejia, is that we're only 3 weeks away from roster expansion.

 

And the Angels were a good fit for Mejia before, and probably an even better fit now -- SPs Pena, Canning, and Heaney have all hit the DL since Mejia's last stint in LA. A couple relievers to the DL too.

[USAFChief]

 

At least he knows what hotel to stay at in Anaheim!

As well as which not to!