I wanted to move a player with no options left to AAA so he didn’t renew at ML minimum next year. I DFAed him with revocable waivers. Someone claimed him. Now I can’t assign the player to any roster, presumably because I DFAed him? Are my only options trading or releasing him? Should I have just waived him instead of DFA in the first place?

Yes, and yes

Mind posting the player? Or name him so I can have a look?

https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=8108600

Do you not have the option to keep him on your 40? Or did you fill his spot already?

Not worth the < 300k you saved.

He is stuck in limbo as needing assignment. Can’t assign him to ML because I DFAed him, can’t assign him to AAA because he did not clear waivers. It’s not a huge loss to trade or release him, just was making sure I understood what I should have done instead.

Right, yeah. See, it's not really a botched move. If you released him, obviously he'd be claimed. If he'd been on regular waivers, he'd have been claimed. If you'd placed him on recall waivers only, he'd have been claimed and you'd be forced to keep him in the majors or trade him. The options system is designed to keep owners from burying players in the minors if they're good enough to play for someone else. So once a guy who's out of options gets to the majors, other teams will be given some opportunity to claim him any way you try to send him back down.

So whether you'd just waived him or just DFA'd him, the result would have been the same because someone claimed him. That you DFA'd him got him off the 40 immediately, that's the only difference. If he'd cleared and you sent him back down you could have left him on your 40; if you took him off he'd become a free agent next season anyway.

Do you not like him? He doesn't seem that bad to me. Keep him on your ML team, or work out a trade with the owner who claimed him.

Was on the fence about him and would have kept him on ML roster had he not cleared. My actions made that outcome not possible. Would have achieved a (relatively) more desirable outcome by doing nothing. Decided to try and sneak him through when we were already in the playoffs and another owner had flooded the waiver wire with his guys. But I did the move wrong. Oh well. I botched it.