Condolences Part 2

In my rush to point out how sad it was that Benitez would be leaving us, I forgot to add the most important part of that story. On June 5th, Brian Wolfe was taken off the D/L and optioned back to AAA. On June 7th, 2 days after being optioned to AAA, he was brought back to the majors, and Benitez was DFA.

Obviously the walk off HR played a huge part in Benitez being DFA, but what it shows is a lack of managerial competency. An option year of Brian Wolfe was essentially wasted because they couldn't make room for him for one day, and then the next day he's brought up because the incompetent reliever who had his spot went from having some to no value in one day.

The Jays may never need to use Wolfe's option years again. But next year if the Jays need to option Wolfe down, and he's out of options, then he'll have to clear waivers (note: I'm not sure how many option years he has left). And I would hate to lose Brian Wolfe simply because an option year was wasted like this. The fact that one of his option years was wasted for essentially one day just shows a lack of foresight on Riccardi's part.

What should have happened? Benitez still had a respectable 5-6 innings to his credit before his implosion and future status as the latest DFA-Jay. Some team could have sent a minor prospect for him. And even if nobody was willing to give a prospect, you might as well have just DFA Benitez then and brought up Wolfe so that an option year wasn't wasted. But optioning him down for essentially 2 days, and then DFA-ing his replacement after a bad game just boggles the mind.

Twitch.