Last night the Blue Jays traded a player to be named later to the Rockies for catcher Miguel Olivo, and then less than two hours later they made Olivo a free agent by declining his $2.5 million option for 2011.
That may sound crazy considering Toronto had to pay Olivo a $500,000 buyout, but as Jordan Bastian of MLB.com explains it was actually a pretty shrewd move by general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
Olivo is a Type B free agent, which means the Blue Jays are now in line to receive a compensatory draft pick if he declines their offer of arbitration and signs elsewhere. Assuming that happens, they basically just bought a draft pick between the first and second rounds for $500,000 and a PTBNL.