Tiger Geist

Bugger. Damn it all. Damn it all to hell

I’ve written that I think Mike Hessman should be called up; I think many people are thinking that right now. I’ve finally realized why it isn’t such an easy answer (at least in my understanding of player movement and this article)…

Hessman no longer has player options available — when Detroit sent him to the minors during spring training, he had to pass through waivers. If Detroit decides to call Hessman up, they had better be sure, since it is doubtful the AAA leading home run hitter (who can play multiple positions) would make it back to Toledo. This makes a Hessman call-up for a current 25-man-roster-player-heading-for-the-DL difficult. Actually nearly impossible… the 15 day DL player still counts against the 40 man roster limit. And… wait for it.. wait for it… Hessman isn’t on the 40 man roster. So they can’t demote Ryan Raburn (who has options) to Toledo and bring up Hessman… to my knowledge, they also can’t bring up Hessman if they put Sheffield on the 15 day DL. To purchase Hessman’s contract, they’d have to drop a player from the 40 man roster entirely… which… I don’t know what this means. It can’t be good (a player on the 25 man roster would have to be designated for assignment immediately… not sure what happens if they drop Brent Clevelen from the 40 man roster).

In these instances, Detroit limits their roster flexibility even further with a Hessman callup. Frustrating — he basically has no value to the team unless it can move Brandon Inge (at which point they’re left without a backup catcher, so another move would have to happen). Jeff Larish? Forgedaboutit. He’s probably stuck in Toledo as well, though he IS available in the case of a player heading to the DL. They’re more likely to release Sheffield outright then play Larish over Cabrera.

NOTE: Roster management is very confusing (more confusing in the off-season). Feel free to correct me; i’m trying to dig into my resources at ESPN to find out more.

UPDATE:  Detroit doesn’t have 40 men on its 40 man roster.  Only 37.  So the only real issues here are the inability to move Hessman up and down between Detroit and Toledo… I guess.