Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee have both cleared waivers, according to Jon Heyman (1 | 2).
Now that Soriano has cleared waivers, the door is open for an American League club to make a trade with the Cubsin order to make him a designated hitter. That said, how many teams need a DH, even if Chicago does pick up some, any or all of the $50 million-plus of his contract? The Indians?
Carlos Lee's entrance into the DH market won't make it easier for the Cubs to get much value out of Soriano, either. Heyman further points out that there's a number of DH-types available over and above Soriano and Lee, including Johnny Damon, Vladimir Guerrero and Jim Thome.
Here's the landscape of bigger potential DH names and how they've done in 2011 :
Soriano: .247 / .286 / .472
Lee: .263 / .321 / .417
Damon: .261 / .315 / .395
Guerrero: .276 / .311 / .392
Thome: .243 / .352 / .459
Looks like five of the same guy to me, but Thome's on base percentage abilities make him the most attractive.