After designating him for assignment last week and failing to find a trade partner the White Sox have released outfielder Dayan Viciedo.
Lots of people were surprised when the White Sox tendered him a 2015 contract and then avoided arbitration with Viciedo for $4.4 million because there seemingly wasn’t much of a fit for him following a very disappointing 2014 campaign.
When they designated him for assignment last week the assumption was that general manager Rick Hahn was confident about finding a trade, but instead in releasing Viciedo the team will eat $733,000--one-sixth of his non-guaranteed arbitration salary.
In the grand scheme of things $733,000 is nothing to an MLB team, but when retaining Viciedo seemed weird from the start the decision-making involved in wasting that money stands out. Viciedo figures to land a big-league gig somewhere, but it won’t be for anywhere near $4.4 million and it probably won’t be an everyday role.
