The Mets outrighted shortstop Chin-lung Hu to Triple-A, reports MLB.com's Anthony DiComo. With Ike Davis on the DL and David Wright headed there, the team will play Justin Turner at third base, Jose Reyes at shortstop, Ruben Tejada at second base, and Daniel Murphy at first. Nick Evans will be recalled today to take a spot on the bench.
Removing Hu from the 40-man roster drops it to 39 players, leaving a spot for Evans. Another 40-man roster spot will be opened up when Chris Young is moved to the 60-day DL.
Hu, 27, was acquired by the Mets from the Dodgers in December for southpaw Michael Antonini. Hu, who is known for his defense, had one hit and one walk in 23 plate appearances for the Mets this year. He had to clear waivers before being outrighted.
Obviously the problem with Chin-lung Hu is that he’s playing out of position. Hu’s on first!
Hu’s shuffling off to Buffalo! (Maybe)
Hu’s gone? Hu’s gone.
The real problem with Hu is that he was almost never on first.
I don’t think they’ve actually outrighted Hu yet. Before you can be outrighted, you have to clear waivers. In order to clear waivers, you have to have been on waivers for 2 days. And in order to have been on waivers, you have to have been DFA’d (i.e. removed from the 40-man roster). Since being on the 40-man roster is a prerequisite for being on the active roster, and Hu was clearly on the active roster last night since he played in the game, it follows that he had not yet been DFA’d, couldn’t have been placed on or cleared waivers, and thus can’t actually have been outrighted yet. Makes sense, right?
Now, officer, pull off his mask and you’ll see that “Chin-Lung Hu” is actually the grumpy old gardener from the beginning of the episode. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for us meddling kids.
Point is, breathe easy fans of the other 29 teams. I believe your team still has a chance in the Chin-Lung Hu waiver sweepstakes.
While that does make sense, I have seen players kind of “boom, outrighted” without mention of a DFA or waiver period. For example when the Cubs selected Doug Davis’ contract it was basically just announced that Thomas Diamond was outrighted to make a spot.
Maybe, but when Diamond was outrighted, I believe he was in the minors. So it’s hard to say when he was actually DFA’d, since the move wouldn’t have affected the Cubs ML roster. For instance, if Diamond started for the Iowa Cubs on 5/10, was DFA’d and immediately placed on waivers on 5/11, cleared waivers & was outrighted on 5/13, Davis added to the Cubs 40-man on 5/14, and then Dimaond started on 5/15 for Iowa, we’d be none the wiser. All those moves were on paper only. Hu, on the other hand, was definitely on the active (and thus, 40-man) roster last night.
As you’re no doubt already aware, waivers aren’t public, and DFAs tend to not always be formally announced. I’d be surprised if the Hu outright transaction occurs before Wednesday. We’ll see though.
EDIT – I may have misread your reply initially. Rereading it, it looks like we’re on the same page.
I confirmed that Hu cleared. You can play while on waivers. I don’t think a DFA is a required part of the process, it’s more to buy the team some time if they need it.
That’s great info. I did not know you could play while on waivers, and it didn’t occur to me that you could be placed on outright waivers before being DFA’d. Makes sense, though, since despite being necessary for an outright assignment, waivers don’t have to be used right away. Just unusual, since usually the process goes DFA, then waivers, since you typically wouldn’t want to expose any player, even a marginal one like Hu, until you had to.
Anyway, thanks a lot, Tim!
When Alderson announced the transaction after the game, I had the same reaction as you and Tim: Don’t they have to put Hu on waivers before outrighting him? He was on Tim’s list of players who were out of options back in March. He must have cleared waivers before he was outrighted.
I thought DFA is an optional “limbo” status that immediately removes the player from the 40-man roster while giving the team up to 10 days to trade, place on waivers, or release the player.
“I thought DFA is an optional “limbo” status that immediately removes the
player from the 40-man roster while giving the team up to 10 days to
trade, place on waivers, or release the player.”
That’s pretty much what it is. It’s the avenue by which a player is removed from the 40-man roster. Typically, though, a player is only placed on waivers after he’s DFA’d, because teams would prefer to avoid exposing their players until they absolutely have to. However in this case, the Mets placed Hu on waivers at some point prior to Sunday (but after April 30th) and then when he cleared, they just kept him on the roster. That’s how they were able to DFA and then outright him on the same day. It looks like they didn’t put him through waivers at all. But in fact, they already had. Academically, it’s an interesting transaction IMO.
I have no idea why I am sympathizing with Chin-lung Hu. He has been beyond awful but for some reason I still fell bad
You forgot to add that Igarashi is also gone (or at least to Buffalo). Both well deserved demotions.
Igarashi deserves nothing.
More of a standard-issue demotion which we usually do not mention.
It’s beginning to look a lot like……….2009.
Finally. What was Collins thinking sending him up to hit in the ninth? I would’ve rather seen Jon Niese up there!
Hu?
Red Sox should pick Hu up and assign him to Portland, where he can play next to Hee.