In case you missed it (as I did earlier):

Daric Barton cleared waivers and was sent outright to AAA by #Athletics. Can elect FA, but will probably accept assignment.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) May 17, 2014

I believe the assignment was in fact accepted later, so Barton is going to head back to Triple-A, where he's got 2,029 career plate appearances, to see if he can improve on the .396 on-base percentage he's posted there. He's probably not the least valuable player in the league, so the A's may as well keep him around as long as they're paying him anyway if he's not taking up roster room, which he isn't in any meaningful sense, unless he starts to take significant playing time from Nate Freiman.