Transactions:
-Roberto Petagine added to 40- and 25-man rosters
-Jeff Harris added to 40- and 25-man rosters
-Jake Woods added to 25-man roster
-Rene Rivera optioned to AAA
-Emiliano Fruto optioned to AAA
-Chris Snelling added to 15-day DL
-Marcos Carvajal designated for assignment
So the official roster is set, at least for the next ten days while Matt Lawton serves his suspension. The team will have to clear another spot on both rosters upon his return, which is bad news for either Petagine or Joe Borchard (unless a trade goes down within the next week and a half).
The way things are set up now, Roberto Petagine will come off the bench to destroy righties, Joe Borchard or Guillermo Quiroz will come off the bench to theoretically destroy lefties, and Willie Ballgame will come off the bench to destroy our collective spirit. As for the bullpen, it goes six deep before Guardado, with Harris being the mop-up man, Mateo being the long reliever, Putz/Woods sharing the seventh, and Sherrill/Soriano sharing the eighth. These guys aren't going to let too many leads slip away.
The baffling move, of course, was Carvajal being DFA'd - precious few flamethrowing 21 year olds with options remaining get subjected to waivers, and for good reason. On top of that, it's not like Bavasi didn't have a choice; it's something that could've been avoided had the team put Snelling on the 60-day DL or chosen Fruto instead of Harris for the bullpen. There has to be a reason for this, and there's a lot of hand-wringing going on because none of us are quite sure what said reason could be.
The rules regarding a DFA are as follows - once a player has been designated for assignment, the team has ten days to either trade him or pass him through waivers for purposes of either releasing him or sending him to the minors. The Mariners aren't going to cut Carvajal outright, so over the next week and a half he's either going to be dealt for someone who doesn't have to be placed on the 40-man roster yet, get claimed off waivers by another team, or clear waivers and end up in San Antonio for the time being. To the best of my knowledge, said waivers are irrevocable, in that should Carvajal make waivers and get claimed, the Mariners would be unable to pull him back (I'm not 100% certain on this - that's what it seems like, but I could be totally wrong). I guess we'll find out if he gets that far.
For what it's worth, the only time a player may be placed back on the roster after being DFA'd is if he provides proof of a performance-hindering injury, in which case the organization can put him on the DL. Carvajal was awful in his limited innings this spring, so I guess there's a chance he was pitching hurt, but then if that were the case, the Mariners would've sent him straight to the DL without any of this silly business, so it's probably not worth thinking about.
The timing of the move suggests that Bavasi wants Carvajal to clear waivers, rather than having to trade him away or let another team make a claim. By Opening Day most teams have their 40-man rosters totally stocked and aren't looking to get rid of anyone for the sake of making a waiver claim. Talented players are getting DFA'd left and right (Erasmo Ramirez, Aaron Guiel, Steve Andrade, Brandon Phillips, Carvajal, etc.), and many of them will clear waivers because other teams just aren't in position to make a move. If you want to sneak a guy through waivers, there isn't a better time to try than right at the start of the season.
That's as much as I can figure out. Maybe Bavasi will trade Carvajal after all. Maybe the Mariners have soured on him. Maybe it was just a bad decision. I couldn't tell you which it is, because I don't know, but ten days from now we'll have an answer. Until then, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that Carvajal sticks around, because he's young, he's good, and DFA'ing him probably just doesn't sit well with any of us.