Trayce Thompson Has Been Designated For Assignment

Time appeared to be running thin for Trayce Thompson in a Dodger uniform ten days ago. At that time, the Dodgers made it somewhat public that they would be looking to trade Thompson. It’s possible that the sands in the hourglass have run out on Thompson’s Dodgers career. Thompson was designated for assignment on Tuesday in one of the team’s final roster cuts.

Today, the Dodgers claimed RHP Cory Mazzoni from the Cubs. Mazzoni will be optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

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To create room on the 40-man roster, Trayce Thompson has been designated for assignment.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2018

When a player becomes ‘designed for assignment’ (commonly seen as DFA’d), there are three courses of action that can take place. One of the three must occur within ten days:

• The team must find a trade for the player.
• The team can release the player outright.
• The player can pass through waivers – meaning that 29 other teams in baseball have not elected to claim and roster him on their big league club. If he passes through waivers he would be accepting an assignment to AAA Oklahoma City.

To their credit, the Dodgers saw this coming and attempted to get out ahead of this. The team proactively tried to work out a trade for Thompson and probably made some calls. With teams knowing the Dodgers’ hands were tied – returns were likely sparse. The most likely scenario to play out above is that Thompson is claimed by another team in baseball and makes that opening day roster.

This would be a bittersweet ending – closing a Los Angeles career that was just 151 games from 2015 to 2017. In some ways, it seems like it was more than that. When things were going well for Thompson, it felt like he would be one of the young pups to grow up with the rest of the young core. At the same time, you have to feel good for the guy. He is one of the best 750 men in baseball. He deserves the opportunity during his age-26 season to carve out a career.

Analysis

When one door closes, another opens. Well, that isn’t quite the case. But at the moment, the Dodgers have a plethora of outfielders playing really good baseball. It’s good to know they obtain the type of depth that breeds healthy competition down to the final days of spring training. To have other teams claiming the guys you couldn’t afford to keep is confirmation that you’re doing things right as an organization. If this is the final sendoff for Thompson as a Dodger, we wish him all the best. Puig, Kemp, Joc, Toles, Kike; it’s your serve. Full speed ahead.