The Miles Mastrobuoni DFA has reached a resolution, and it’s a trade to the Seattle Mariners for cash. That means the Mariners, wanting to claim Mastrobuoni on waivers, decided they had to pay a little extra to get him in case someone ahead of them in line was going to claim the lefty-hitting utilityman.
That, in turn, means that Mastrobuoni – who has an option year remaining – did have a little value out there as an up-down 26th man, despite his struggles at the plate in the big leagues. He plays solid defense all over, hits lefty, runs well, and has always raked at Triple-A. I get why the Mariners, and apparently some other teams, would want him on their 40-man. For the Cubs, it was just a matter of overcrowding in that role, which was all the more the case after the team traded for Vidal Brujan.
Note that this trade is for actual cash, rather than IFA pool space (which cannot be traded until tomorrow at the earliest). Hopefully the Michael Arias DFA is the one that resolves in a trade for IFA pool space (so the Cubs can poach some additional prospects) or some other meaningful return.
Mastrobuoni was DFA’d last week when the Cubs acquired interesting reliever Matt Festa from the Rangers. All the best to Mastrobuoni with the Mariners, who’ll add him to their own group of light-hitting versatile infield options. Seems like, even after signing Donovan Solano, they still need another bat in the infield, and Mastrobuoni probably isn’t it. The Cubs are in that club, too, as they look for an impactful bench bat type.