Jays Wa(i)ve (goodbye to) Lind

The Jays have placed Adam Lind on outright waivers at some point today.  It's basically a DFA, but they're not cutting/releasing him if he clears, as far as I know.  Either way, he's exposed to the other 29 teams in the league, and if anybody claims him, they'll take on his contract.  From Cots:

A club that wishes to remove a player from its 40-man roster but keep him in its minor-league system must first place him on outright or special waivers. Outright waivers are not revocable, so a player claimed on outright waivers may not be pulled back by his original club. A club may not request outright waivers on a player with a complete no-trade clause or on a player ten-and-five rights.

It's a pipe dream that anybody takes him, but Brian Sabean still has a job, so who knows?  It's not that Lind isn't worth taking a flyer on or anything, it's just that he's owed a pro-rated $5MM for the rest of this season, another $5MM next season, and the buyouts on the three club options totaling another $3.5MM.

If he gets claimed, it's obviously no big deal, but the more likely option is that he gets through and heads down to AAA to see if he can learn to take a pitch.  His being removed from the 40-man suggests to me that they're going to send Yan Gomes back down once Lawrie's suspension is finished, and that someone else will come up.  Either that, or Vlad Guerrero is pretty well ready to come up and needs a roster spot.

I'm sure we'll see Lind again at some point this year (assuming he goes unclaimed), though obviously he won't have the same amount of slack that he had been given previously.  Presumably, he'll be re-added to the 40-man when Dustin McGowan goes to the 60-day DL or whatever.

Danny Knobler of CBS sports says that there are some other moves on the way, whether that means that Snider is coming up, or Thames is going down, or something just right out of left field (see what I did there?).

Just thinking out loud here, who could possibly have the need for a lefty first baseman with 20+ HR's in his bat? [aside: does the rest of the league even consider Lind to be a first baseman?  He really doesn't have any defensive value at 1B, or anywhere else, for that matter.]  I present to you my list of potential (hopeful) suckers.

• Baltimore already has a series of 1B/3B-types in Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis and Wilson Betemit, but I doubt any of those guys really preclude a roster move.
• Cleveland has Casey Kotchmann giving them some below-replacement production at 1B.  Jose Lopez has played 1B as well (and Carlos Santana's value plummets when he doesn't catch, especially since Lou Marson is awful).
• Oakland seems too cheap for this kind of thing, but they don't have any great options at first at the moment.  Daric Barton is a great fielder, but he doesn't really offer anything offensively.  Kila Ka'aihue (or whatever) is swinging a decent bat lately, despite a really low walk-rate.
• Seattle might be a bit worried about Justin Smoak, if he continues on this path.
• The Marlins just sent Gaby Sanchez to the minors, though Logan Morrison is probably going to get 1B time in his absence, since LoMo is an embarrassment to outfielders the world over.
• The Phillies are getting chewed up with injuries, and have a weird combination of Laynce Nix, Ty Wigginton, and John Mayberry Jr. getting most of the 1B time in Ryan Howard's absence.  Apparently Howard is coming back soon, though.  The scary thing is that Lind is probably an improvement over a few guys on that bench.
• Milwaukee seems like a fit.  They lost Prince Fielder to free agency, and lost Mat Gamel to a season-ending injury.  Travis Ishikawa, Taylor Green and Brooks Conrad have contributed nothing offensively.
• Casey McGehee and Garrett Jones haven't done much for Pittsburgh yet, but I doubt Pittsburgh is looking in to spending at this point in time.  They did pay $15MM and prospects for AJ Burnett though, I guess.
• This seems like the kind of thing Brian Sabean would jump all over.  Aubrey Huff sucks, Brett Pill is just some guy, and Brandon Belt probably banged Bruce Bochy's daughter or something to get treated the way he has.

So there you have it.  9 teams could have some kind of need for a 1B.  I don't think anybody is going to claim Lind, but you might be able to find a trade partner within that list of teams, assuming the Jays pick up some of the ~$13MM owed to Lind between now and the end of next season (or take on another bad contract).