Buster Olney reported this afternoon that Jays OF and former Beane man-crush Alex Rios has been claimed on waivers by an unknown team.

Various reports have said neither the Giants, Red Sox nor the Mets are among the teams. The A's would have one of the first shots at Rios, at least among AL teams.

The Jays are looking at dumping salary and have three options at this point:
1) Let the claiming team take over the remaining 60MM on his contract, dumping a boatload of salary but receiving nothing in return.
2) Retract the claim and keep him for the rest of 2009.
3) Work out a deal with the claiming team, which, if it's A's, would have to include Toronto taking in decent chunk of the 60 MM.

I know we already have a logjam of OF for the next handful of years and Rios is currently in a down year at 1.25 WAR from his former 5.0. However, he's still young and in his supposed peak years. While coming to a pitcher's park would do him no favors, depending on how much Toronto picked up, I don't think this would be a bad buy-low lotto ticket to purchase.

What would a package include? Probably Buck, who needs a change of scenery like Mischa Barton needs rehab. Speaking of Barton's, I wouldn't be shocked to see Daric in such a deal as well. Maybe Sweeney, who would be SOL upon Rios' arrival. Or perhaps Cunningham?

Purely speculation, but wanted to get others' thoughts.