I would call it silly to call it that.
What's the manipulation? Are they trying to keep open a roster slot on the AAA roster flor Binelas, and for what? It's not like he needs to be kept on the 40 man AAA roster, or we lose him.
I do agree the whole idea of having him work on his D without being on a minor league club as the DH, while he does it is mystifying or "BS" as you call it, but I see no purpose in doing this as a manipulation of a roster slot.
Maybe, I'm missing some rule or reason why it benefits the team by doing this, and if someone points it out, I'll be happy to apologize for calling the "manipulation" aspect "silly."