I hear that with the trading deadline for Major League Baseball nearing, that players can be traded after if they clear waivers. What does this mean? Can you only trade a player nobody else wants? I hear the expression all the time but never an explanation.
This site does a pretty good job of explaining the waiver rule: http://rangers.siegler.net/roster/rosterrules.html
As I understand it, after the trading deadline (July 31st) A team can only trade a player if they have “cleared” waivers. This means that the team must first waive right to the player. They then wait three business days, if no one else picks them up, they can then release the player outright, send him to the minors if they are a veteran player and the player consents, or they can trade the player to another team. If during the three day “clear” wait time another team claims the player, the original club can withdrawl the waive and keep the player on the roster.
Baseball teams ask for waivers on almost all of their players every month (with the exception of players with no trade clauses).
For example, the Boston Red Sox probably have asked for waivers for every player with the exception of Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra. Starting with the team in Boston’s league with the worst record (Tampa Bay), they can put a claim on a player, for example, Carl Everett. The Red Sox then find that out and can do one of two things: 1) agree to take a player from Tampa Bay in return for Everett or 2) pull Everett back off the waiver list and keep him.
The trading deadline, July 31, means that it’s the last day you can make a trade without having to have a player clear waivers (i.e. be passed over by every team except the one that ones to get the guy). In August, there are still a lot of trades as most general managers don’t want to claim players to keep them away from another team because they might end up stuck with someone they don’t really want, as was the case with the San Diego Padres and Randy Myers in 1998.