Braves Waiver Trading 101: All You Need to Know

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Kansas City Royals starting pitcher

Johnny Cueto

(47) stands in the dugout prior to a game against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The Basics – Starting from August 1st

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Players made eligible for trade are placed on “revocable waivers“. This is routinely done for most of the 40-man roster of most teams. Teams may place as many as 7 active players (not on DL*) per day on waivers.

UPDATE: As we just learned with the trade bringing Nick Swisher to the Braves, you actually can be on the DL and be traded at this time of year, so long as you’re eligible to come off the DL, both teams agree, rehab in progress, etc.

Why?

The rules require waiver requests to be done for individual players – not as a blanket request for the whole team.
It provides maximum flexibility for their GMs;
It can mask whatever their true intentions might be;
It doesn’t single out individual players as possible trade bait — which can get players bent out of shape (witness Andruw Jones‘ complaints from several years ago when the Braves put him on waivers – he didn’t read this first!).

Once placed on the Waiver list, there is a 48-hour claiming period, during which any team may put in an claim objecting to the rule-breaking team…that’s the ‘waiver claim’.

To prevent every team from claiming every player out there and causing utter chaos, there is a token price ($20,000) attached to waiver claims.

If a team fails to make a claim, it is effectively saying: “we have no objection to you moving this player to another team”, and thus they are rendered powerless in whatever happens after that point. If you don’t object, you give up the right to complain later.

Next: The 'Gotchas' to the Rules

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