Sorry if this is a known fact, I couldn't find the anwser.

I have some players I want to remove from the 40 and put on waivers (they have already cleared, I'm trying to dump salary).  When I choose remove from 40-man roster, I get the following message-

"Error: None of your roster moves could be added due to the following reasons:

You are attempting to remove *(player name)* from the 40-man roster. He has the choice of becoming a free agent instead of accepting the move. We asked the player what he would do and he responded that he would elect to become a free agent. You may either keep him on your 40-man roster or release him."

My questions are-

A. How do I make him elect to become a free agent instead, and if so, am I still on the hook for his salary?
B. How does it make sense that it says "he would choose", but yet I still have to choose for him?
C. Is there another way to put him back on waivers after clearing and being on the 40?

To head it off at the pass- I won't release him if I'm still on the hook, thus trying waivers over and over again, and I've never ran into this before.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

A) He becomes a free agent by virtue of being released.  You would be on the hook for his salary.

B) You're being given the choice of kieeping him or releasing him.  As in "do you really want to do this?"

C) His waiver status gets reset after the transaction deadline, when you'll have one more chance to try it again.

Designate him and you can remove him from the 40 without releasing him.  You're still on the hook for salary but you clear up a spot on the 40.   It's a flaw in the system.

Yeah, but he may not able to assign him back to the minors after he clears if he's demanding to be released.  Unless he finds a trading partner, he may get auto-released after 10 real-life days.  Which I think is what asher is trying to avoid.

He will.  Read the last sentence in my post.  

Thanks for the help MikeT.  Sure enough, this is the order to get them back on waivers:

1. Designate without waivers, submit.
2. Add to 40, submit.
3. Assign to team, submit.
4. Waive.

You could have designated with waivers and he would have been removed from the 40, gone thru the waiver process and then you could have shipped him to AAA if he wasn't claimed.

I couldn't designate with waivers- he still has options.

You can designate anyone.

Yes, but you can't designate with waivers if they have options left.

To be more clear, you can designate anyone who hasn't cleared waivers.   Options do not matter.