Posted by shawnnj on 12/10/2012 3:00:00 PM (view original):
I thought that if I did that, I still lose control of the player if I do not act on him in 10 days - so essentially, this will get him waived.  

Removing a player from your 40-man roster does NOT require that you waive him.  You should almost always designate him for assignment.  If he has minor league options left you could just demote him, but he would remain on the 40-man.  If you designate him WITHOUT waivers, then he is removed from your 40-man roster and will be awaiting his new assignment in the minors.  If he does NOT have minor league options left, that still doesn't mean it's a good idea to just waive him in order to remove him from the 40-man.  Instead, you designate him WITHOUT waivers then try to trade him to someone.  He will sit in limbo while you attempt to make a deal, but he will have been removed from the 40-man.  You have 10 days to waive/release/trade him before the sim automatically releases him.  Lastly, if it is AFTER the transaction deadline, you can choose to designate that player with normal waivers or revokable waivers or no waivers at all. 

There are so many more prudent options available unless your only goal is to simply rid yourself of that player and get nothing in return.

I just want to make sure that I understand this - the player was in AAA. I understand that if I designate him, he is removed from the 40, but I didn't think I could then just reassign him to the minors using his options.  I understood from everything that I read that if I wanted to remove him from the 40, he had to pass through waivers first.  

i think selvendar is talking about an ml player on the 40 man, not necessarily one in the minors already

If a player has options, you can designate him without waivers to remove him from your 40.    He can then be assigned anywhere you like without exposing him to the rest of the world.

If a player does not have options, he must pass thru waivers to be assigned to the minors. 

Not sure if that's your question but that's how it works.

Thanks Mike - that is new to me.