How August Trades Work, Can Mariners Take Advantage?

July 31st is widely heralded as the last day teams can improve their playoff positioning. However, Mariners fans should remember several big trades made by Dipoto in August.

These big deals include acquiring Yonder Alonso and Mike Leake last August, and Ben Gamel in August of 2016. So what gives? How are players able to be traded after the deadline? How did the Mariners get these guys? Well, July 31st represents the deadline for all “non-waiver trades”. That is any trade that can be consummated without several additional hoops to jump through.

But technically, teams can trade players all year long. Players not on a 40 man roster can be traded without issue all year around. Making a trade is substantially easier if done before July 31. But deals in August happen every year. So today, let’s talk about the process by which the Mariners, and the rest of the baseball world, navigate the rules of August trades.

Part 1

A player is placed on revocable waivers. Revocable waivers are different from a Designated for Assignment tag because they can be revoked. Hence, revoke. The way it works is simple: A team places player X on revocable waivers. The team with the worst record in the league of the team player x is currently on gets the first crack to claim him. If they pass, the team with the worst record in the other league gets an opportunity to claim him.

For example, if the Mariners put Mike Leake on revocable waivers, the Baltimore Orioles would get the first chance to claim him. If they passed, the team with the worst record in the NL, the San Diego Padres, would then get a chance to claim him.

The player remains on revocable waivers for 47 hours. If no team claims him, he can be traded to any of the 30 teams just like any time before July 31. But what if the player is claimed? That brings us to the next step.

Part 2

So your player was just claimed on revocable waivers? Well, now the team has several options to consider. First, and most common, the team will simply pull the player off of waivers. Once the team does this, that player is ineligible to be traded for the rest of the 2018 season.

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Second, the two teams can work out a trade for said the player. What makes this so difficult, is that the teams only have 48 hours to work out a trade, and the claimed player can only be traded to one team. Your 30 team bidding war has become an awkward first date, trying desperately to find something you may have in common.

The third option is the nuclear option. The team who placed the player on waivers can simply dump him into the claiming team’s lap. This is rare but can happen, usually with big contracts on the other end.

The most notable instance of this is when the 2009 Blue Jays placed Alex Rios on waivers. He was claimed by the Chicago White Sox, and the Blue Jays simply let Rios go to Chicago, thus relieving themselves of Rios $63 million contract. This is why players with big contracts often slide through waivers, as many teams don’t want to add massive sums of payroll to their roster in-season.

Part 3

So now that you know the basic rules of the waiver trade period, you should understand some of the strategy teams deploy this time of year.

First, just about every single player in Major League Baseball will be placed on these waivers. It’s hardly newsworthy. It is almost a guarantee the Mariners will put Nelson Cruz and Mike Leake on these waivers. It doesn’t mean they are looking to trade these guys. But you lose nothing by putting guys on revocable waivers, so why not?

Another thing to remember is that teams claim players to “block” other teams from getting said player. For example, if a player gets to the A’s in the waiver process, they may simply claim the player to prevent their competition, in this case, the Mariners, from having any chance to acquire said players.

However, players with big contracts are rarely claimed. This is where the Mariners advantage might come in. Seattle is in a better position to add large sums of salary better than many AL Contenders, either because of luxury tax concerns, fit or general cheapness like the Oakland A’s.

Big contract players who are likely to be placed on waivers include Jordan Zimmerman, Ervin Santana, James Shields, and Ian Kennedy.

I expect the Mariners to add at least 1 more player to its 25 man roster in August, and wouldn’t be surprised if they added 2 players. Either way, August can be just as important to this Mariners team as the trades made in July.