The Andrew Albers Circus

The night of last Wednesday, August 10th, started with Brian Dozier and the Twins hanging five runs on Dallas Keuchel, but ended with a steady stream of rain that washed the game out and those five runs away.

Due to the rainout forcing the Twins and Astros to play two games the following day, the Twins issued a release at 10:57 pm announcing that they planned to select the contract of Andrew Albers from Rochester to serve as the 26th man for the second game of the day Thursday, as baseball rules allow.

But the first game of the day was a disaster and immediately following the game, the Twins announced that Buddy Boshers was headed to the disabled list and Andrew Albers would have his contract selected and replace Boshers on the active roster. There would be no 26th man for the doubleheader because Pat Light, who was going to be called up from Rochester, had a flight get cancelled.

Albers wasn’t particularly good, getting hit around for 11 hits. But he served his purpose, pitching six innings to save an already-taxed bullpen.

Two days later, Albers was designated for assignment.

We all know what that means - when a player is DFAd a 40-man (and 25-man spot - if the player is on the 25-man roster) opens immediately and the player goes into “DFA limbo” for up to 10 days. Typically the limbo ends when the player is traded, sent through release waivers and released, or sent through outright waivers where he is either claimed (buh-bye) or clears and is “outrighted” to the minor leagues.

So imagine my surprise when the beat writers started reporting that Albers was “optioned” to Rochester. Wait. What? An “optioned” player is on the 40-man roster. An “optioned” player is just coming off the 25-man roster. Albers was on neither.

Or was he?

Well, what happened is that Albers had to pass through a different set of waivers called “optional waivers.” A place that players go when they have an option left, but when three calendar years have passed since their big-league debut. The Twins didn’t need the 40-man spot, but they needed a roster spot so bad that they had to DFA Albers while the formality of the “optional waivers” processed. Albers goes back on the 40-man too.

So what the heck?

I recalled reading this article about the Indians DFA'ing (but not really DFA'ing) Carlos Carrasco and it got my mind spinning…. was this the same thing? It certainly appeared to be.

But I still find myself asking a few questions:

When the Indians did this with Carrasco their release said they “designated Carrasco for assignment Sunday for the purpose of optioning him to Class AAA Columbus.” The Twins, however, said they were designating “left-handed pitcher Andrew Albers for release or assignment.” Why not be up front in the release? Semantics, I guess, considering they were going to option him… which is an assignment.

Why did the Twins change course and add Albers to the 25-man roster when DL'ing Boshers instead of just leaving Albers as the 26th man and adding Light the next day? Does it have to do with the fact that Albers couldn’t simply be sent down immediately after the game because he’d have to clear optional waivers? (In that case, DFA him right away.) Or did the Twins front office not realize they’d be hamstrung by adding Albers? (Which would be hard for me to be mad at anyway, because I didn’t know the rule.)

Was there concern that Albers wouldn’t clear outright waivers? Or that he wouldn’t accept his assignment? (He’s been outrighted before, so he could elect free agency.)

Maybe the Twins had no intention of sending Albers back down right away, but had to in light of Milone’s injury?

At any rate, Andrew Albers remains on the 40-man roster on optional assignment to Rochester. Of course, it’s not really going to matter anyway in a couple of months, when Albers is sent through outright waivers to clear up a space on the 40-man.

But I’ll tell you what, the series of transactions led this geek to do a lot of head-scratching.