Chris Aguila was removed form the 40-man roster during the weekend.
We are doing some catching-up from the weekend. I did see the stories today independently but since I needed to sleep and Photi was the hard working man he is: most of the links will go through Fish Chunks. So if you want to read the whole article you have to click twice - your mouse finger can handle it. You do get the added bonus of reading the quick wit of Photi.
Anyway back to the story.
On Friday, however, the 27-year-old outfielder was outrighted to Triple-A Albuquerque. In limited action, Aguila appeared in 47 games for Florida this past season, batting .232 in 95 at-bats. He had eight doubles, a triple and seven RBIs.
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Now out of options, Aguila would have to make the Marlins coming out of Spring Training next year. So most likely, his tenure with the organization is coming to an end.
Outrighting Aguila leaves the Marlins with 37 on their 40-man roster.
While it may be true that Aguila only has next season's spring training left to stay with the organization that is not a complete certainty.
When a player is placed on the 40-man roster for three years and is brought up and sent down, those are his option years. What that means is that the club has the option to decide where he plays. They can freely move him from the majors to minors and no other club can touch him. After three years on the 40-man roster and being moved between the two leagues, he is said to be out of options. In order for the organization to reassign him to the minor leagues they have to put him on outright waivers,
The difference between outright waivers and major league waivers is that when a player is put on outright waivers and another team claims him, he goes to that team and the Marlins can't pull him off the waiver wire. As opposed to major league waivers where if the Marlins were wanting to keep a player they would just put him back on the 40-man roster.
The team can only place a player on outright waivers once without his permission. Should he clear the waiver wire he will be reassigned to the minor leagues. In order to put him back on the 40-man roster the team must repurchase his contract from the minor league club.
If they decide to remove him from the 40-man again, he must approve going through outright waivers or he can decide to become a free agent.
Aguila's career with the Marlins may not be over since he was put on outright waivers and not release waivers. It could be that the club feels it has more attractive prospects to other teams and would rather protect them on the 40-man roster when the Rule 5 draft rolls around.
Now, you're ready for Beinfest's job. Okay, maybe not, but you're closer.