Ehire Adrianza designated for assignment to make room for Nick Hundley

The Giants cleared room on their 40-man roster for Nick Hundley, designating Ehire Adrianza for assignment. You did not wake up this morning expecting so much clarity regarding the Giants’ plans for the bench. This team is just full of surprises.

Adrianza will either be traded or placed on waivers, with the latter much more likely. If he’s claimed, he’ll head to another team. If he passes through waivers, the Giants won’t be able to outright him to the minor leagues, as he’s already been outrighted once before. They would be able to sign him to a minor-league deal, but that seems unlikely, considering the plethora of middle infielders the team has accumulated this offseason.

The odds of Jimmy Rollins on the Giants just went up, in other words, though they also went up substantially for Kelby Tomlinson, too. Orlando Calixte is already on the 40-man roster, so he’s probably the shortstop/outfielder in the glass case if Rollins plays as old as his stat line suggests now. While it’s a little surprising that Adrianza was DFA’d after receiving a major-league contract to avoid arbitration, the Giants are responsible for just $150,000 of his $600,000 guarantee because they cut him before spring training.

It’s time to revisit some of the headlines Adrianza has inspired on this site:

Don’t worry so much about Ehire Adrianza

Conclusion reached in the article: Eh, he’s not that bad.

If Ehire Adrianza is the biggest problem on the Giants, they're probably in good shape

Conclusion reached in the article: Eh, he’s not that bad.

Is Ehire Adrianza really too valuable to give up?

Conclusion reached in the article: Eh, he’s not that bad.

But he certainly wasn’t that good, at least not to a team with a 40-man roster crunch and a desire for more power. He can still carve out a career with someone, and I’m guessing he’ll get claimed. Remember that Eduardo Nuñez was the Adrianza of the Yankees before he was inexplicably an All-Star, and while I’m not exactly going to predict an All-Star nod for Adrianza, I still think there’s a 20-percent chance that the Giants regret this move. Okay, 10.

Maybe five. We’ll settle on five percent.

That’s still a 95-percent chance that we don’t remember who made room for Hundley by August, though, and we’ll always remember Adrianza for ... that thing ... you know, the one he did that time.

Uh, sure.

No, that’s not the one.

That might be it ...

There we go. That was a fun game until the Giants blew a save and lost, but it was the last time that would happen all year.

Fare thee well, Adrianza. You probably deserved a team that didn’t have Brandon Crawford, and hopefully you’ll find one of those now.