Sort of. Here’s the story. The O’s released him and put on waivers. The Rays claimed him. The Rays then traded him to the Royals after barely using him. The Royals barely used him as well and then traded him to the Mets. The Mets didn’t even use him and then traded him back to the Pirates.

See here for the entire sage.

7. Jose Bautista

Dec. 15, 2003: Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

… the Orioles decided that they’d had so much fun with the previous Jose Bautista that they’d better grab this one too. And from that point things became downright kooky.

There wasn’t anything remarkable about this fellow’s minor league performance. A third baseman who’d spent three years in the Pirates’ system without rising above high-A, Bautista had hit all right, but nothing great, either in terms of power or average or strike zone discipline, nor did he have speed or a great glove. Nevertheless Baltimore’s two-headed GM (Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan) decided to give him an opportunity.
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Bautista made the Orioles’ roster, but by no means the starting lineup: Melvin Mora stepped forward and grabbed the third base job and had a great year, and Bautista was relegated to a strict scrubeenie role. By early June he’d appeared in just 16 games, and had only 12 plate appearances, and the Orioles were no longer willing to devote a roster slot to him. But before offering him back to Pittsburgh, they placed Bautista on waivers, and the last-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays claimed him.

The struggling Devil Rays would seem to be an organization that would benefit from investing some patience in this prospect, but no: After giving Bautista just 15 PAs in three-and-a-half weeks, Tampa Bay gave up on him, accepting a purchase offer from the Royals. Yet neither would Kansas City, also a cellar-dweller, demonstrate any commitment, as just a month and only 26 plate appearances later, the Royals traded Bautista to the Mets.

Bautista’s stay in New York would be the briefest yet: Their only interest was in packaging him as part of a trade with Pittsburgh, completed on the very same day. Thus his original organization had gotten Bautista back, after a bizarre odyssey in which he’d been the property of four other franchises within the space of two months. And the Pirates, as Bautista’s original organization, were the one team that held the capacity to farm him out at this point—and yet they declined to do so, keeping him in the majors for the rest of the 2004 season while using him in just 23 games and 43 PAs.

All in all it was a weird fuss for so many ball clubs to be making over a guy with entirely ordinary ability. Once he’s finally gotten the chance to play regularly in the majors in 2006-2008, Bautista has proven to be a blandly unexciting journeyman.

But I’m pretty sure that if they don’t keep him on their major league roster they have to offer him back to the original club for $25,000 (or maybe $50K)

i think the team must put him on waivers first before offering him back to his original club. If he’s not claimed, the original club can pick him back up and send him to the minors w/o exposing him to waivers.

Best gift I’ve gotten for my birthday in years.