When a team designates a player for assignment, he is removed from that club’s 40-man roster. The team then has a period of time with some ability to impact what is next for that player. This is colloquially referred to as “DFA limbo”.
The team can trade the player to another club, unless the trade deadline has passed and the new offseason has not yet begun. The team can also place the player on outright or release waivers. This limbo period can last as long as seven days. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the team has a maximum of five days to work out a trade.
Or at least that’s the case for most of the year. It’s different around the holidays, with several instances in recent years of players being in DFA limbo for longer than two weeks. For instance, catcher Sam Huff was designated for assignment by the Rangers on December 23rd of 2024. He stayed in DFA limbo until he was claimed off waivers by the Giants on January 8th of 2025, 16 days later.
There has never been an official announcement made about what the rules are but it’s clear there’s some sort of freeze on the DFA clock around the holidays in late December and early January.
In this morning’s edition of The Opener, MLBTR mentioned two players who had been designated for assignment on December 17th, expecting those situations to be resolved today. There have been no updates as of the publication of this post. It’s possible the situations have been resolved but just haven’t been reported publicly because of media/communications people taking time off for the holidays. It’s also possible that those players have had their DFA clocks frozen and will remain in limbo into January.
Below is a list of players who have been designated for assignment in the past week without resolution, listed chronologically.
December 17th
- The Guardians designated outfielder Jhonkensy Noel for assignment when they acquired left-hander Justin Bruihl from the Blue Jays.
- The Giants designated outfielder Joey Wiemer for assignment when they signed right-hander Jason Foley.
December 19th
- The Orioles designated left-hander Josh Walker for assignment when they acquired right-hander Shane Baz from the Rays.
- The Giants designated outfielder Wade Meckler for assignment when they signed right-hander Adrian Houser.
- The Pirates designated outfielder Marco Luciano and infielder Tsung-Che Cheng for assignment to complete their three-team trade with the Astros and Rays.
December 20th
- The Tigers designated outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy for assignment when they re-signed right-hander Kyle Finnegan.
- The Guardians designated left-hander Justin Bruihl for assignment when they signed right-hander Shawn Armstrong.
December 22nd
- The Athletics designated left-hander Ken Waldichuk for assignment when they acquired Jeff McNeil from the Mets.
December 23rd
- The White Sox designated left-hander Ryan Rolison for assignment when they signed fellow lefty Sean Newcomb.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images