You Learn Something New Everyday
By Mike Silva ~ December 11th, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
I found this blurb from Chad Jennings at the Yanks LoHud Blog interesting:
When the Dodgers made their September call-ups this year, they took Hoffmann off the 40-man roster, but the story is a bit more complicated than that, at least according to Brian Cashman. ”The Dodgers last year reduced him from their roster, and teams put claims on him throughout the game,” Cashman said. “But (the Dodgers) had a deal with him of signing him back. They gave him a $25,000 signing bonus, so he rejected the claims and went to Triple-A for them. It was a smart deal by the Dodgers to try to protect their assets when they got into a roster crunch. They knew he wouldn’t get through the outright, and he didn’t.” I honestly had no idea a player could reject a claim, but there you have it.
There are so many rules in baseball that you always can learn something new. I never knew a player could “reject a claim”, but it appears they can. Was this an example of a handshake deal? Was it in the contract? Who knows, but it again goes back to what we reported regarding Carl Crawford and the belief that he didn’t want his option picked up. There is so much in baseball behind the scenes that we really never know the whole picture behind player transactions.
That’s why I sometimes challenge the “know it all” mentality by certain fans, sites, and blogs. Everyone has value, but no one has absolute knowledge. That is why the game of baseball is probably more talked about than any other sport. It’s part of the charm of “America’s Pastime”.
