The Athletics have designated outfielder Alex Hassan for assignment, reports Robert Murray of Baseball Essential (Twitter link). Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle adds (also via Twitter) that the DFA will clear room on the roster for right-hander Angel Castro, who will join the bullpen.
Hassan has, unfortunately, become somewhat of the poster boy for some possible flaws in the DFA system, which MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth recently examined at length. Hassan entered the offseason in the Red Sox organization, but was claimed off waivers by the A’s and then the Orioles. Baltimore designated Hassan for assignment in February, with the A’s claiming him off waivers yet again. He would then be designated by Oakland in April, claimed by Texas and designated again before being claimed for a third time by the A’s. This marks the fourth official DFA for Hassan since late February — a mark that doesn’t include the original two instances in which Boston and Oakland tried to sneak him through outright waivers.
From Hassan’s standpoint, it’s clear that multiple clubs view him as a good enough player to keep on a 40-man roster for depth purposes, and while that’s normally a good thing for a player, it can also hinder their development, as they’re ineligible to play while waiting to learn of their outcome in DFA limbo.
Hassan is a career .278/.381/.402 hitter at the Triple-A level, although he’s batted just .230/.305/.297 in 82 plate appearances between the Triple-A affiliates for Texas and Oakland this season. At his best, the 27-year-old offers the ability to hit for a high average and get on-base at a strong clip without striking out too often. He can handle first base and the outfield, so it’s not surprising that clubs view his skill-set as an appealing one.
But yeah commissioner, this totally isn’t a problem
You gotta feel sorry for this dude! Manfred, we have a problem!
Seriously, this kid can’t catch a break. Oakland should just plain be barred from placing claims on him at this point. They’ve claimed and released him 3 times in 7 months now.
They’re not releasing him; he’s been designated for assignment. They want him to clear waivers and go to AAA.
Slip of the terminology. It’s still not right, no matter what it is being called though. They’ve claimed him 3 times and attempted to slide him through 3 times now. That’s not playing fair by Hassan no matter how you slice it.
It’s a bad system, but the A’s obviously want to keep him. They can’t fit him on the 40-man, so they have to DFA him to try to keep him in AAA. It’s a lousy system for fringe guys like him, I agree.
Flawed system doesn’t implicate the A’s. As stated, it seems the A’s would like to keep him in their system somewhere. There has to be a better way to do this. Can someone remind me how the DFA process goes? (Feeling too lazy to slog through the interwebs right now. )
It just basically means that a team places the player on waivers and has 10 days to, trade, release or outright him to the minors. If he’s claimed on waivers the acquiring team gets him for the waiver price, which isn’t a lot. After the 10 days are up he can be released or sent to the minors. But during those 10 days he can’t play.
One of the ugliest things going on in baseball today, really a shame how the guy has been handled.
This is awful for the player it happens to but I can’t think of a fix for this. Maybe a 4th option after being DFA’ed a certain number of times.
why has this guy not been able to stick anywhere???
He’s a fringey 40-man roster guy that teams like Oakland are claiming so that they can attempt to slide him all the way through waivers so he can be assigned to AAA. There are teams he could stick with. Either they aren’t claiming him, or they are down farther on the depth chart for making claims.
He hasn’t really been able to play with all the DFAs
I would say that a team should have to keep the claimed player on the 40 man roster for a certain amount of time.
That just seems like it would decrease the chances that anyone would claim him and the current team could just outright him off of the 40-man straight to the minors
Is that really worse? It’s not like he’s sticking on anyone’s 40 man right now.
Woo hoo! Texas is ready to claim him again!
I know of a last place in the National League East that should be glad to offer him a full time starting position if he became available to them…
There’s a very simple solution for this situation if MLB and the MLBPA can agree to it. If you’ve been DFAd three times in a calendar year you automatically become a free agent. Since situations like Hassan’s only come up a few times a year the fix doesn’t have to be that complex nor does it have to be viewed as some dramatic change to the rules.
I like this.
Hassan is exactly the kind of guy Philadelphia should be taking a chance on rather than running the useless Grady Sizemore out there every night.
That’s a good idea, in theory. The problem is that he has never made it to Philly in the claims line because an AL team has claimed him every time. Philly possibly put a claim on him all 7 times he was DFA’d.
Is that how the waivers work? I thought it was just worst team record got the first shot at the player, but I could be wrong. If the Phillies had a shot it would be worth the flier.
If an AL team waives someone, all AL teams can claim from worst to first. If none of them claim the player, then the NL team can claim, from worst to first. Of course the opposite is true if an NL team waives someone.
Thanks! I thought it was league-wide. Thanks for the info.