The offseason roster move carousel has already begun across Major League Baseball.
While four teams are still playing for a World Series trophy, non-star players across the league have already begun changing teams. Not only can some players elect free agency, but teams are managing their 40-man rosters by waiving players they don't view as key parts of their future.
The Pittsburgh Pirates nabbed outfielder Will Robertson off waivers from the Chicago White Sox on Monday, and to clear space on their 40-man roster, they designated fellow outfielder Ryan Kreidler for assignment. There was a chance Kreidler could have stayed in the organization, but he would have had to pass through waivers first.
No such thing happened, however, as the Minnesota Twins swooped in and claimed Kreidler on Wednesday, according to the official MLB transactions log.
Kreidler, 27, never appeared in a major league game for the Pirates, as he spent just one week on the active roster before being optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis. He did play 17 games for the Detroit Tigers in center field this year, posting a brutal .296 OPS and negative-0.2 wins above replacement.
Once a fourth-round pick for the Tigers out of UCLA, Kreidler has yet to show he can handle major-league pitching in 211 career plate appearances. But while the Twins are in rebuilding mode, they'll happily take some shots at some retread candidates like Kreidler (and fellow outfielder James Outman, who they acquired in a deadline trade) to see if anything sticks.
Entering the spring, Kreidler will have no remaining options, so if he doesn't make the opening day roster, he will have to be exposed to waivers again.
The Pirates seemed to prefer Robertson, and the Twins had room to spare, so there's a world where everyone wins here. These types of roster moves can sometimes feel insignificant in the moment, but you never know when one might change the trajectory of a season.