The Orioles will likely assign right-hander Oliver Drake to Triple-A after he cleared outright waivers, according to Rich Dubroff of PressBoxOnline.com (via Twitter). Drake entered the spring out of options, meaning he had to make the active roster to keep his 40-man spot.
Drake, 30, has shown some swing-and-miss ability in 33 2/3 MLB innings over the past two seasons, and has been quite productive in the upper minors. Indeed, he has compiled a 13.5% swinging-strike rate in the majors with his intriguing forkball.
While it seemed Drake had a reasonable shot at cracking the O’s pen, he struggled quite a bit this spring. He allowed 13 earned runs on 23 hits over 13 1/3 innings, though he did record 13 strikeouts to go with just three walks.
Isn’t placing a player on the waivers the same as DFAing him?
Not precisely. If I have this right, a DFA means that the team now has 10 days to trade, release or demote the player, and players who are DFA’d are those who need to clear waivers to be sent to the minors. I’m not clear on which players can be outright waived and which have to be DFA’d first, though I imagine it has to do with MLB service time.
Teams aren’t required to DFA players. If a player is on waivers, he remains on the roster until he is claimed by another team, released, or assigned to the minors. Since the waiver process takes a couple days, designating the player for assignment (DFA) is a convenient way to immediately remove him from the 40-man roster while awaiting further action.
What you might be thinking of is using the DFA to accommodate optional waivers. If a player is more than 3 years removed from his MLB debut, he has to clear revokable waivers in order to be optioned. In that case, a DFA is required if the team needs to clear that roster spot right away instead of waiting a couple days for him to clear waivers.
“Hate the Drake!”
“Love the Drake!”
He’s just a victim of a crowded Orioles roster
“Keith Hernandez!!”
We will see him in the O’s pen at some point this season. That forkball of his is nasty.
DFA are now 7 days