If you haven't seen it already, Pete Abraham had the first word that the Yanks have DFA'd TJ Beam, Darrell Rasner, and Matt DeSalvo.
It makes all the sense in the world to me.
Beam seemed to have a decent minor league career, but he never really got a fair shot.
Rasner turns 27 in January and is out of minor league options. He'd have had to make the club or be cut anyway.
DeSalvo, while a mighty reader, wasn't much of a pitcher. He could catch on someplace else and get a shot at the bigs with a desperate team, but he wasn't coming back to NY unless half a dozen other starters all go down at once.
No complaints here.
Update [2007-12-13 10:29:17 by jscape2000]: From Rob "the BBWAA doesn't think I'm good enough to be a member" Neyer.
After three years as a pro, a player must be protected on a team's 40-man roster, or he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft (more on that later). Once he's served those three years, and assuming he is added to the 40-man roster, his club then has what are called "options" on him.
When a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the 25-man Major League roster, he is on "optional assignment." One common misconception about the rules is that a player may only be "optioned out" three times. Actually, each player has three option years, and he can be sent up and down as many times as the club chooses within those three seasons.
When you hear that a player is "out of options," that means he's been on the 40-man roster during three different seasons, beginning with his fourth as a pro, and to be sent down again he'll have to clear waivers (more on those below).
By my count, Rasner is out of options, but I didn't find the date he was added to the 40-man, just that he's been in the system 6 years.
Karstens has at least one more option year.
Veras has been in the system 10 years (since he was 17). I'll try to find more information this afternoon.