He CAN be sent down. All he has to do is clear Major League (revocable) waivers which is pretty much a formality. No GM in his right mind would claim a player off of those since he would expose himself to retaliation from other GM's, plus it's a common practice done by every team. At some point in the season pretty much every player goes on major league waivers. I don't think many GM's would hesitate to claim Corey off the waiver wire. In addition, I disagree that it is a practice that is commonly done (to send out of option players to the minors, that is). Large numbers of players are sent through waivers following the trade deadline so that GMs will know whether they are available later. Those players often are expensive, have long term contracts and/or are underperforming. With Corey's salary and talent (though untapped), I highly doubt he'd make it through waivers. When Kevin Millar was involved in that waiver flap, my understanding was that it was a special situation. The Marlins had a deal to ship him to Japan and, generally speaking, other ML teams don't screw players under those circumstances. But, Epstein being an unconventional GM made the claim.