Thanks! Why not just send him down for a conditioning period?
Not 100% sure, myself.
Stanton would have to agree to go to the minors on a conditioning. I really doubt he rejected that idea, but that could technically be it which would leave EDM forced to just waive him to get him down.
What I imagine it was is the roster is full and they don't see him being part of the main roster anytime soon regardless of how his conditioning goes, so may as well just send him down. In other words, after the conditioning stint is done if they want Stanton to stay in the minors, he'd have to go on waivers anyway, so they're just preempting that and getting it done now while he's still more of a question mark to the other teams.