It's an August tradition: the Yankees flex their financial muscle to claim some overpriced player on waivers in order to add him for the last few months of the season. Only this time, the tradition has been turned on its head, as the Nationals claimed Matt Thornton, and the Yankees let him go.
That's right; the Yankees just let a quality left-handed reliever go for nothing but cash savings because they might be working on directing that money somewhere else. It's interesting to see the Yankees dumping salary here, when they spent the last few weeks taking on money to add the likes of Chase Headley, Brandon McCarthy, Martin Prado, and Stephen Drew. Perhaps more interesting will be what deal that are working on that would consume the money they just saved on Thornton, as Ken Rosenthal reported that the Phillies just placed a bunch of their expensive players on waivers yesterday.
For the Nationals, they get a decent lefty specialist who isn't atrocious against right-handers for $1 million over the rest of this season and $3.5 million next year, and don't have to give up any talent in exchange. For a team in their position, this is a nice little addition, giving their bullpen another solid arm for October.
