After pitching five shutout innings in an emergency spot start, Righthander Billy Buckner was rewarded by the Angels by being designated for assignment.
The dreaded DFA basically gives every team in baseball a chance to claim Buckner provided they place him on their forty-man roster. If he is unclaimed, he will return to AAA Salt Lake but would not be on the Angels forty man roster.
What gives? Four things. ONE, Jered Weaver is almost certainly returning to the team on Thursday. TWO, Kevin Jepsen is ready to go and this is one exhausted bullpen.
THREE, and most importantly, while a DFA is often seen as an embarrassing demotion in a sport's alpha-male pecking order, the DFA here might serve as a reward of sorts to Buckner. After looking about as good as he or the Angels could have hoped for, the likelihood of him contributing to the Angels big league club was limited. The DFA could be seen as a chance for him to get a regular turn in the rotation of another big league club. The Angels might even work out a trade with the claiming team. Look at it as a charitable window of free agency for Buckner.
FOUR... this means Chuck Finley's jersey #31 goes back into cold storage.
Oh and FIVE, they only have to pay him one day of big league salary this way, the cheapskates.