Cirillo Heads West

The Twins had a decision to make today on who they were going to send down to make room for Michael Cuddyer, who was activated from the disabled list. As they were no doubt pondering the relative merits of keepin Brian Buscher around, the Diamondbacks issued a claim on Jeff Cirillo, who the Twins were routinely putting through waivers (as most players have been) for the purpose of making him available in a potential trade. All of a sudden, the roster conflict disappeared. Cirillo is now with the D-Backs, and the Twins get to activate Cuddyer.

The one unusual thing about this move is that this wasn't a trade -- merely a waiver claim. The Twins felt that they didn't have time to work out a deal with the D-Backs in exchange for Cirillo, so they just let him go. This is fairly unusual, as even veteran players who are underperforming (such as Cirillo) typically bring something back in return. In this case, however, you have to ask how much a guy who's been pretty bad all year would have been worth to the D-Backs. We certainly would have received a prospect -- but I'm guessing it would have been a pretty bad prospect.

This will undoubtedly cause even more rumblings in the clubhouse, but they're misplaced. Cirillo was not an integral part of this team, and he wasn't going to be. I'm not sad to see him go (although I'm not happy either -- color me all sorts of gray on this one). The only downside to this move that I see is that it means more playing time for Nick Punto and Luis Rodriguez, simply by default.