It's crazy how reliably a surplus sorts itself out. The story for the Reds was their glut of position players, but their season hasn't started and they're out Friedl, Marte, McClain, and Arroyo long term.
Weird that Schildt went to Matsui vs. the bottom of the order wand bases empty with Ohtani and Freeman due up back to back next inning. Unless he's letting him pitch to them too.
But that doesn’t really make sense though. If you’re optioning Espinal, you’re doing it because nobody wanted to trade for him. You don’t actually want to pay him 2.75M to play in AAA. So you DFA him. That serves an immediate purpose (clearing a spot for Serven). And there are two possible outcomes:
1) he gets claimed - great, his salary is gone
2) he doesn’t get claimed and reports to AAA and gets re-added to the 40-man again if the team needs him
I can’t think of a single reason why the team would just option him
Why not? If he’s not making the team, best case someone claims him, worst case he goes unclaimed and waits in AAA as depth.
I don’t think it will be him, but it should be.