Yeah, a lot of teams could do worse than have Thompson in their bullpen as a swing man. He's not good, but he can definitely serve a purpose on a team with a shaky fifth starter or injury worries.

I assume the Cardinals released him because with him and Colby Rasmus both on the roster they looked like a high school team. In a more nickanmey era, Thompson would be Babyface.

Twins nontendered Brian Buscher, as well.

Thompson is eligible for arbitration, so they probably figured there are cheaper options available.

The roster moves started last night with Jarrett Hoffpauir being picked up off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays.

I know absolutely nothing about this guy. Are the Jays actually getting anything of value here, or is this nothing but back end of the 40 man roster churning?

Twins nontendered Brian Buscher, as well.

Outrighted to AAA, right? Not nontendered, since he's not arb-eligible.

EDIT: Not that it makes much of a difference, I'm just on a lifelong quest to understand the transaction rules as well as I can.

Re: NotMicah Hoffpauir, he seemed to do well in his 12 career AB for the Cardinals. Looking at his minor-league numbers, single seasons seem to look better than all of them put together, which probably only means that I don't know how to judge prospects. Doesn't seem to be a bad flier, to me, I'd have been happy if the Mets had gotten him, but I'm an optimist.

Ryan, I liked him a lot more at first glance than I do on further reflection. If he can handle short he'd be a good utility guy/bad regular. I don't see anything to make me think he can actually handle short though.

Thanks for the responses. I'm actually quite interested in this move, since the minor league hitting numbers look pretty respectable for a 2B, and I'm starting to wonder if the Jays are considering trying to move Hill back over to SS again (with or against his will). Without Scutaro at SS, the Jays are going to need someone else in the MI capable of providing at least a tiny bit of offense.

Jarrett's D: ZiPS projected him (last year) as a Av at second and third, fair at short. I think these ratings are highly optimistic and would call him Poor/Fair (again, using DMB parlance) at second - he has not played much third or short as a pro, partly because he's got a second baseman's profile and has been interesting enough to start at those levels.
Nice org guy (and like the bat control), but that's probably it.

Good bat, bad glove rep. The Cards are up to their ears in shortstops to use as utility guys and Schumaker fills the good bat/bad glove role at 2B (and was improving with the glove as the season went along, according to cfb), so he was expendable.

Hoffpauir isn't athletic enough to be a shortstop in anything but emergency mode. And that would last only until you can locate Deivi Cruz or somebody like that.

Overall you could do worse than Hoffpauir at 2b, and he could be useful on a team starting a LHB there with platoon issues. But La Russa hated Hoffpauir for some reason, and for all the nonsense that surrounds La Russa, he's generally pretty good at figuring out which fringe players don't belong in the majors.

In a more nickanmey era, Thompson would be Babyface.

Brad "Puppykicker" Thompson likes this nicknamey era just fine, thank you very much.

Hoffpaur can get on base, which is valuable. His biggest problem was he was going to have to be a utility infielder in the majors, and he basically can really only play 2B, and even that position only so-so, so LaRussa would rather have guys on the bench that could play 3 IF positions, plus 2 OF positions, etc.

Thompson certainly has value, as he's sort of a RH Tommy John, with extreme groundball tendencies, so he keeps the ball in the ballpark. He can also start or relieve. His only problem is sometimes he'll give up a bundle of hits at inopportune times.

The Cardinals aren't releasing these guys because they're not valuable, but because they have a TON of younger guys that have to be put on the 40 man roster this year.

The Phils should give Thompson a look as a swingman - they'll need a veteran stopgap to back up the kids (Kendrick, Bastardo, or Drabek) looking to replace Brett Myers. A cheap ground-ball pitcher like Thompson would be a nice fit.

I can see him landing in Seattle. Seems like a Jack Z kinda move. He'd have to bring back Wilson and find a good infield defense though.