Waiver Deadline Q & A

Despite the fact that the “trade deadline” has passed, teams can still secure a player that will spark them down the stretch and into the post-season. However, the process of how deals get done is very difficult to understand as we'll attempt to explain.

Q: Players can still be dealt?

A: Yes, any player on any team, whether they are at the major league level or rookie ball, can be dealt right now

Q: How does a deal go down?

A: Well in reality there are two forces here at work. The first is the simplest and most desirable for teams trying to make trades. You put a player on waivers (which is a 47 hour process) and hope that no one makes a claim on him. If he clears waivers then you are free to trade him to anyone you like (for players they have who've also cleared waivers, or if you would have priority, which will be explained momentarily).

However if someone does put in a claim on the player put on waivers it gets a little more complicated. Let's look at a hypothetical example. Suppose the Royals were looking to move first baseman Mike Sweeney and know the Baltimore Orioles want to swing a deal for him.

First, the Kansas City Royals would notify the Commissioner’s office that they will be placing Sweeney on waivers, let say, on August 12th. This would have to be done by 2 pm EST on any business day, since the Commish’s office is closed on weekends. Sweeney would be on waivers for 47 hours, until 1 pm EST on August 14th (the Royals might also place several other players -- up to the maximum, seven -- on waivers to try to obscure the deal they are actually trying to make).

Every team in the Majors Leagues would have a chance to make a claim on Sweeney during this 47 hour window. Claims are not first come first serve but have a priority ranking; the teams with poor records have priority over teams with better records (worst goes first), and teams within the same league have priority over ANY team in the other league which will also use the worst to first priority system.

So if the Texas Rangers (a half game worse than the Orioles in the standings on that date) made a claim for Sweeney, the Birds wouldn't have a chance to trade for Sweeney, but the Rangers would. If the Rockies and Pirates (two worse NL teams) also claimed Sweeney, they'd be out of luck since both the Rangers and Orioles would have higher priority because they are in the same league as the Royals.

After a team claims Sweeney and the “who has the worst record” and “who is in the same league” dilemma is solved, then the actual trade might go down. The Orioles (in our example the Rangers did not claim Sweeney) and Royals have 48 and a half hours (from 1 pm Saturday afternoon to 1:30 pm Monday afternoon) to work out a trade. If the teams cannot work out a trade then Sweeney automatically goes back to the Royals and could be placed on waivers a second time, however that severely compromises their leverage in any dealings because if he is claimed off waivers a second time they cannot "pull him back" and must trade him to the claiming team.

How would the Orioles go about sending a player to the Royals? The player the Orioles would send to the Royals would need to be claimed by the Royals (who have the worst record in the AL, which makes things easy) or the player would have to clear waivers (meaning no team claims him in the 47 hour period), or have cleared waivers already. If the agreed upon player(s) from the O's get through waivers then the deal will be finalized. Of course this is where a lot of the “Player to be Named” later trades also occur since the player would not need to clear waivers in the off-season.

Q: Can a team just dump a player?

A: Yes, they can. A few years back, the Toronto Blue Jays placed relief pitcher Randy Myers on these waivers for the purpose of getting rid of his salary. There were grumblings that the Atlanta Braves wanted Myers, so the San Diego Padres put in a claim and won it, since no one else put in a claim and the Padres had a worse record than the Braves. The Blue Jays basically said you claimed him; you keep him and his salary. These moves are usually branded as "Put on Waivers for the purpose of granting unconditional release"

Q: What is “blocking?”

A: Very good question, and a very important one. “Blocking” is what the San Diego Padres did with Randy Myers. A team can try to block a team with a better record from acquiring a player by claiming him first. If the Rangers and Orioles were battling for the Wild Card and the Orioles wanted Sweeney, then the Rangers could block. The Royals would then either deal him to the Rangers or pull him off waivers.

Q: Who gets placed on waivers?

A: You would be very surprised by some of the names! Sources say that the Astros put pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte on waivers, but both were pulled back, of course. This might have been done in an attempt to draw attention away from the one player they were trying to move, to see if they could get some wiggle room for trades, or just for gauge interest. The names of players are rarely revealed, even to the players that were placed on waivers.

Q: What are some previous waiver wire deals?

A: The Cardinals picked up Larry Walker last season and theright fielder hit 11 homers in 44 at bats. In 2003, the Yankees moved reliever Armando Benitez to the Seattle Mariners, while the San Diego Padres and Pirates put together the Brian Giles for Oliver Perez and Jason Bay swap. For their 2003 World Series title run, the Marlins added Jeff Conine. In 2001, the Cardinals picked up starter Woody Williams, who went 7-1 the remainder of the season, while Ray Lankford hit .288 for the Padres.

Q: Will there be any big trades this August?

A: The trade deadline was pretty weak at the end of July, which could mean that plenty of players could be traded this August. However many waiver wire deals in the past have really been salary dumps by small market non-competing teams and fewer of those teams are now making big salary commitments to that kind of player. The other frequently traded type of players are those that a team knows they can't re-sign - and there are plenty of those.