Trade Deadline

From Rule 5 Draft selections to waiver claims, transactions in Major League Baseball can be more confusing than 7th-grade Algebra (I will always hate the quadratic equation), and the most famous time for transactions in baseball are the weeks leading up to the trading deadline, which concluded last Thursday, July 31 at 4:00 p.m.

But did you know that teams can still make trades after the trade deadline?

So, for this week’s Hardball Mystery, we’re going to figure out what exactly teams can and can’t do after the deadline.

July 31st is the trade deadline for teams to openly exchange players without having to pass them through waivers. But Jonathan, what are waivers? Good question, you.

Teams place players on the waiver wire for two reasons: 1.) To gauge interest for a trade for the player placed on the wire or 2.) To try to get another team to claim the player so that they can dump his salary.

After the July 31st trade deadline, teams must put a player on waivers before they can trade him. Meaning, they can’t trade a player to any team they want. They have to put him on the waiver wire and allow all teams the opportunity to make a claim on the player. For instance, if the Cardinals wanted to trade Albert Pujols to the Chicago Cubs, they would have to place him on waivers and allow other teams the chance to claim him. Of course, hell isn’t currently freezing over, so the odds of that trade aren’t great.

That all makes sense, right? But what if more than one team puts a claim on the player?

Waiver priority starts with the team in the same league that has the lowest record. So, if the Cardinals put Pujols on waivers tomorrow, the San Diego Padres will have first dibs on him since they have the lowest record in the National League. From there, priority goes up to the team with the best record in the National League, then worst to first in the American League, which means the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim would have the lowest priority because they have the best record in the American League. And they have two cities in their name. Yay for them!

But that’s where the strategy comes in for general managers. Let’s say your team is three games behind the division leader, and a player is placed on the waiver wire that they want. Since your record is worse, you can have waiver priority over the player and block the trade to the division-leading team. Only problem is, now you have to claim the player, even if you don’t want him. So, if the Giants put Barry Zito on the waiver wire, and the Cubs really want him on their team, you decide to claim him in order to keep the Cubs from getting him. The only problem is, you now have to take Barry Zito and his fat contract on your team. Congratulations! No offense, Barry.

Despite the fact that there are dozens of trades each year, only a few are remembered as big deadline deals. Lou Brock to the Cardinals from the Cubs in exchange for Ernie Broglio. Tom Seaver to Cincinnati for four minor leaguers. Randy Johnson to Houston at midnight. Albert Pujols to the Cubs. Wait, no, that never happened.

There have also been a number of big-name, post-deadline deals have taken place over the years. Not all of them have worked out so well, though. The most famous was when the Padres wanted to block Blue Jays reliever Randy Myers from going to a contending team. So, they claimed him off waivers, worked out a deal with the Blue Jays, and rode Myers and his 6.28 ERA all the way out of the playoffs. Myers pitched awful in the postseason and never pitched again after that season, but guess who got stuck paying the rest of his contract? If you guessed the Padres, you win the prize of mental satisfaction and self-pride.

Will any of the big trades this season be remembered in baseball history as blockbuster deals that got their teams over the hump? Will Bay for Manny be another Brock for Broglio? More importantly, will Manny Ramirez (pictured above selling his grill on eBay) cut his ridiculous hair?

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Last week's contest recap: After several outstanding entries, "Anonymous" has been selected as the winner for choosing the "Batman" theme music as his at-bat music. That is fantastic stuff. For anonymous's efforts, they will be rewarded with either two tickets to a Sounds home game or an autographed headshot of yours truly. Choose wisely!

Keep sending in those e-mail suggestions for more Mysteries, and together we will solve the enigma wrapped inside a conundrum that is baseball culture.