Tony Campana Designated for Assignment
OF Tony Campana was Designated for Assignment (DFA) yesterday by the Cubs, to make room on the MLB 40-man roster for OF Scott Hairston (signed by the Cubs as an Article XX-B MLB free-agent).
The 32-year old Hairston signed a two-year contract that will reportedly pay him $6M ($5M guaranteed plus another $1M in potential perfoemance bonuses).
Because he was an Article XX-B MLB FA post-2012, Hairston will have automatic "no trade" rights through June 15th. He can waive this right, but if he does, he can be traded for cash and/or player contracts with a maximum aggregate value of $50,000.
The Cubs 13th round draft pick out of the U. of Cincinnati in 2008, Campana hit 262/306/300 with 54 SB (5 CS) in 184 MLB games over the previous two seasons (2011-12), and is considered to be one of the fastest players in MLB. He will be 27 in May.
A reminder about how the DFA process will work with regard to Tony Campana:
1. The Cubs have ten days to either trade, release, or send Campana outright to the minors. (He cannot be returned to the 40-man roster because he was replaced on the 40 by another player).
2. Outright Assignment Waivers must be secured by the 10th day, so Campana can be placed on waivers no later than next Monday (2/18), and thus the Cubs will have until 2 PM (Eastern) on Monday 2/18 to trade Campana because the "waiver ride" takes two business days (actually it takes 47 hours, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays during Spring Training and the regular season, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays during the off-season). So in this case, the Cubs only have eight days to trade Campana, not ten.
3. The Houston Astros have first priority on Outright Waiver claims at this time. (The previous season's standings are used to determine waiver claim priority during off-season, Spring Training, and up through the first 30 days of the MLB regular season, then the standings as of the morning the players clears waivers are used beginning on the 31st day of the regular season). Whether it is an American League team or National League team making a waiver claim does not matter EXCEPT for Trade Assignment Waivers (required to trade players on the 40-man roster beginning on August 1st up through the conclusion of the MLB regular season), where clubs in the waived player's own league get first priority over clubs in the other league, even if the club in the other league has a worse record than the club in the player's own league.
4. Campana CANNOT elect to be a free-agent if outrighted because he has not accrued at least three years of MLB Servicve Time, he is not a "Super Two" player, and he has not been outrighted previously in his career. He would not be eligible to be an MLB Rule 55 minor league free-agent (6YFA) until post-2014, although he would be eligible for selection in the December 2013 Rule 5 Draft if he is not added back to an MLB 40-man roster in the meantime.
5. If waivers are secured and Campana is outrighted to the minors and then is added back to the Cubs MLB 40-man roster prior to the conclusion of the 2013 MLB regular season, he would burn a minor league option (he presently has two left), even though he was outrighted (not optioned) to the minors. (No minor league option would be spent if he is outrighted to the minors and then is added back to the 40-man roster AFTER the conclusion of the 2013 MLB regular season)
Even though this is the best time of the year to sneak a player through waivers (because most MLB 40-man rosters are full), I think it's fairly likely that Campana will get claimed. I believe the Cubs would have had a much better chance of getting Ian Stewart through waivers (as they did with Blake DeWitt and Manny Corpas about this time last year) than will be the case with Campana.
I believe Campana could have value to a lot of MLB clubs as a "5th outfielder" (pinch-runner & late-inning defensive replacement), so it's possible that the Cubs will be able to trade him to another club before he has to be put on waivers, in exchange for a "second-tier" type prospect who is not on the other club's 40-man roster.
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