It was a crazy non-waiver MLB trade deadline which had some big names changing teams, but there are still some interesting names that could be on the move in August trades.
The July 31st MLB trade deadline has come and gone and teams are now set up for their playoff runs, but of course there are still moves that can be made after this deadline that can help determine the playoff picture. The July 31st deadline is the non-waiver trade deadline, meaning that teams are free to trade players to any team they want with no restrictions. After this date, trades can still be made but there are many more hoops that must be jumped through. This process can often be a bit confusing so let me lay out how it works.
For the rest of the season, if a player is to be traded they must first go through waivers. The player is first offered to every team in that player’s league in reverse order of standings. If he goes unclaimed, he is then offered to every team in the other league in reverse order of standings. If the player is not claimed by any team then he has passed through waivers and can be traded to any team. If a player is claimed during this process, the original team can do one of three things: they can pull the player back and keep him, they can work out a trade with the claiming team only, or they can allow the claiming team to take him and his contract. Once a player has been claimed on waivers they cannot be put through the process again.
There is a great amount of strategy involved in sending players through waivers and claiming players. If a team has no interest in a player but a rival team behind them in the waiver wire does, then the first team can claim the player with no intention of acquiring that player just to block them from getting to that rival team. You won’t hear about many of the specifics of what goes down on the waiver wire, because they rarely get out to the public, but I would expect the Yankees to block just about any player of interest from getting to the Red Sox.
Due to the nature of the rules regarding waiver trades, there are only a small sample of players that have a legitimate chance of being traded through this system. Typically, players with high salaries and poor performance are the ones that sneak through waivers. No team wants to claim a player with a bad contract and get stuck with him. For instance, Albert Pujols will definitely go unclaimed through waivers as no team would want to take on his whopping $60 million over the next three years. There are some interesting names that I believe may get moved this August whether that is because they slip through waivers or just get traded to a claiming team.