Even among relatively passionate fans, waiver claims tend to fly under the radar — easy to dismiss as a team picking up players other teams didn’t want. After all, if another team didn’t seek to keep a player, can he really be all that good? The answer is yes, of course. Misevaluations of major league-caliber talent happen all the time, and sometimes a worthy player might find end up out of a 40-man spot for reasons beyond his control, often being picked up rather quickly by teams that think there is potential beneath the surface-level numbers.
The Rockies did just that with Nick Mears, who was DFA’d by the Pirates on December 18, claimed by Texas five days later and DFA’d again on December 27 to make room for newly-signed Nathan Eovaldi.