After one of the most tumultuous offseasons in recent history, left-hander David Rollins has cleared outright waivers, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Rollins will be in Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee, where he’ll compete for a spot in the Chicago bullpen.
There are players in Rollins’ boat every offseason — those who are seemingly deemed a fringe 40-man roster candidate by multiple clubs but bounce from team to team as those clubs make other roster maneuverings. (Casper Wells and Gonzalez Germen come to mind as a couple of names that have recently ridden the DFA carousel for much of the offseason.) Rollins, though, is among the most extreme examples of that situation, having been designated for assignment a staggering six times this winter.
“At the end of the day, it’s a business. I get it,” Rollins told ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick last week after his sixth DFA. “But I’m still a human. I keep thinking, ’Teams like me enough to pick me up, but nobody wants to take a chance on me.’ It’ll play games with your head, that’s for sure.” Rangers GM Jon Daniels, who has twice claimed Rollins this winter, weighed in on the matter to Crasnick as well, noting that some kind of limitation on the waiver process has at least been discussed at the annual GM meetings, though no rule has been agreed upon. Rollins’ agent, Jonathan Maurer, also spoke to Crasnick about the difficulties the process can place on certain players. (The entire piece is well worth a read, as it’s rife with quotes from multiple vantage points on the matter.)
While Rollins has yet to experience much in the way of Major League success — he has a 7.60 ERA in 34 1/3 Major League innings — he’s a fairly hard-throwing left-handed reliever with a solid minor league track record. Rollins has averaged 92 mph on his fastball in the Majors, and he owns a 2.82 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 1.2 BB/9 in 60 2/3 innings at Triple-A in his career. The former Rule 5 pick does have an 80-game PED suspension issued back in 2015 hanging over him, but that hardly seems to have curbed interest in him.
Though the offseason has undoubtedly been exhausting for Rollins, he’ll now at least have some peace of mind as he heads to Spring Training with the Cubs in hope of securing a spot in the big league bullpen. That looks to be an uphill battle, as the Cubs project to have Brian Duensing and one of Mike Montgomery or Brett Anderson in the bullpen. Additionally, they’ve reportedly made an offer to bring Travis Wood back into the mix, and Rob Zastryzny also remains on the 40-man roster.
Must be such a relief for Rollins. Tumultuous offseason finally comes to an end.
Gotta say, it seems like this silly game is really only played by a few hyperactive teams that constantly claim guys in the hope that they’ll be the “lucky’ one when the music stops. It’s just being busy for the sake of being busy. A team like the Cubs, with their money and (now) the allure of a World Champion, could pick up any number of equally talented, minor league lefty relievers. But they’re busybodies so they play the game.
I seriously doubt teams are shuffling guys around for the fun of it. That’s a waste of time for everyone involved. More likely, teams like the player somewhat so they put in a claim… Until they find a player they like more then they DFA said player. And round and round it goes for these fringe 40 man guys.
That’s not true. If Rollins was one of the 40 best guys available when they claimed him he would be one of the 40 best guys now. They clearly never had any intention of keeping him on the 40. They just wanted to take a chance on him making it through waivers.
Um, no. He could’ve easily been best player available at the time, but not later on. Teams are constantly DFAing and releasing players who could be more valuable than a player like Rollins. Of course, teams would rather pass him through waivers but its not like they don’t think think he’s *worth* a 40 man spot.
I could believe that if it happened once or maybe twice. Not six times.
Why? Things change all the time in the offseason. Someone like Eddie Butler becomes available and the Cubs would rather have him than Rollins. Also, Rollins was DFAd 6 teams by 4 different teams I believe so it’s not like it was just two teams constantly doing this.
What???? How about grab everyone you think has potential and hope no one else claims them! If you can stock pile players you believe are good, talented etc. why not take that chance?
And thus begins the transition of the Cubs — from “”Lovable Losers” to “Bullying Busybodies”.
I think it’s less about the specific teams playing the waiver game as a whole and more about a few specific teams liking one player. The A’s and Rangers traded Adam Rosales back and forth four times in two weeks a couple of years ago, for instance.
The Dodgers and Yankees both had possession of Ronald Torreyes and Tyler Olson on multiple occasions last winter, I believe. The Angels have had Juan Graterol twice this winter.
Clearly the Rangers and Cubs both find some element of Rollins particularly appealing and are keen on keeping him as a depth option. I doubt either feels great about Rollins going through such a mental and emotional wringer, but they feel like he’s better than the average Triple-A lefty reliever they can pick up, for whatever reason.
If Rollins prefers, he can retire from baseball and get a real job then. Lol
I didn’t see him complaining about being a ballplayer. Why be so hard on the guy? Envious?
Fielding a team takes a ton more than just 25 bodies.
Teams are always on the lookout for guys with ability and/or versatility to help fillout the many rosters/depth charts they need to worry about. The problem is, when those guys were already on a 40 man roster then you are left hoping you will be the last team with a then open 40-man spot desiring his service. If not then the player does the musical chairs until rosters are near filled up.
Has absolutely nothing to do with teams being busybodies – it’s just an inevitable outcome for a couple of the better/more useful players as long as the 40-man roster rules and minor league clubs exist
Or…..
they have an available option for Iowa, that won’t be a minor-league free agent next year.
Remember when Russ Canzler rode it
Yeah, Canzler was another one — good call. There are a few guys every winter (Brady Dragmire this offseason as well… Ronald Torreyes last winter), but I can’t recall anyone getting designated six times in one offseason.
I’ll be rooting for him. The guy deserves to have a good year after all this malarkey.
Rollins will also be competing with fellow lefty & Rule V pick Caleb Smith
There should be a rule where if a player is DFA’d more than once in one offseason any team that claims him will have to keep him on their 40-man roster for at least 2 months.
That is absurd. If a fringe player had been DFAd once already then teams would just DFA them again knowing no team would want to be stuck with said player on their 40 man for 2 months.
1. They were already gonna DFA him anyway
2. One way or another, this kind of thing that happened to Rollins has to stop
Rols, don’t bother arguing with him. He’s always right and everyone else is always wrong. Oh but by the way, that 2 month rule will never happen, ever.
Does Dad let you drive slow on the driveway on Saturday?
Oh no, you’re not happy with what I said, and the fact that it’s true, so you’re gonna start crying? You are worse than bigpapi4ever and his trolling. You are the definition of pathetic.
Tell ya what bud, keep on posting on here how you think your so big and bad. And I’ll keep laughing at your “tenacious C” and Pokémon theme covers. So hilarious!
Tell ya what bud, since you proved me right again, go back to your SDSU room, and keep making YouTube videos since you’re a loser with no life.
Um, what? If you go look at the other thread it was YOU who requested my attention and started this tete a tete after I made a suggestion to try and stop guys like David Rollins from getting claimed six times in one offseason, you are the one who is still crying about it almost a week later and you are the one who felt the need to stalk me on Google and watch all my Youtube videos. That is the picture of a pathetic person. Desperation becomes you in your delusional world.
Don’t forget to link to those videos. I look sexy af!
P.S. the fact that you took it upon yourself to Google me and watch all my videos shows who is truly the loser with no life. Thanks for the views tho 😛
How’s it feel to be you? Do people smile at you a lot all the time because they think you’re special? Or are you just content on going to school on mommy and daddy’s dime? Hope all of your generation isn’t like you bud, otherwise we’re screwed.
How fitting that you would ask me this. You don’t know what it feels like to be normal, just like I don’t know what it feels like to be a mental patient 🙂
It took me a week to even think, “I wonder if that kid is still taking the bait and commenting?” It took you less than 12 hours. Proving my point of you having no life. You keep playing into this and I keep laughing. Mental patient? Look in the mirror, a lot of them start out talking to themselves in a camera!
Here’s the difference between you and me. I have the MLBTR app and know how to use the notifications settings. I get a notification on my phone every time someone replies to me. Then from there, it’s up to me whether or not I wish to reply back. Easy and simple.
You on the other hand, just admitted that you thought of me a week later and felt compelled to look for this article to check and see if I had replied. If you truly didn’t care about me, you wouldn’t have done this. Not would you have checked back hours later to see if I had replied again. Nor would you have kept replying to me at least a dozen times even after saying you were out. I got under your skin. Just goes to show that you are truly the obsessed one. Obsessed with me and obsessed with trying to start flame wars on MLBTR. But like always, you try to cross someone who has proven themself your intellectual better.
🙂
Would it make sense to say that you could only be claimed twice in 12 months or a calendar year? So the second time you’re DFA’d, a team who claims you has to keep you. Alternatively, if you’re claimed, you can’t be DFA’d for three months (or whatever seems a reasonable period). It’d be nice to see this type of stuff end.
If ownership and players cared enough, the new CBA would have addressed it. Maybe it should be a concern. Apparently, it is not.
No, it’s kind of insane
First, why does anything have to change? The players cant mind all that much at the end of the day – getting claimed a couple times generally means you are passing to either teams that are more likely to use you in the majors/use you in an important way/develop you in a specific way, or it means that you are moving to later (read: better) clubs.
And it’s not as if the players are literally moving around the country or anything – its all just paperwork moves as everyone is waiting for the pre-season to begin. I mean, I seriously doubt Rollins would have rather still been completely stuck in a Mariners organization that isn’t all that interested in him anymore, as your proposal likely would have meant for him.
Second, the proposal would pretty much destroy the entire idea of a 40-man roster and even have profound implications on the rule-5 draft. (swapping around a 40-man roster leading up to the draft would be an absolute breeze, very few players would ever be claimed if released to clear spots, so the rule-5 might be destroyed completely)
It’s not really broken, and there is absolutely no reason to mess with it just to satisfy the one or two players that might possibly be slightly annoyed by having their rights claimed multiple times one season.
Does it cost money to make a waiver claim? I believe in the nhl it’s a 15000$ charge to claim a guy
Teams are still filing in rosters and players who do get designated more than a few times end up in better situations to make the 40 man rosters in a different team. Good luck in the Mlb David Rollins.
Hasn’t Casper Wells been out of the league for the last few years?
Does he get paid during all this claiming and then waiving? If so, the league minimum should keep him happy despite the paper changes.
If it were during the season he would be but players aren’t paid during the offseason I don’t think