Can someone please explain to me how trades are made after the July 31 deadline?

Answer 1

August 01 marks the beginning of a new "waiver period" in baseball. In order to trade a player freely, the player must first clear waivers, which is a process whereby every other team in MLB may file a claim for the player, in reverse order of current record (worst teams have first chances). If no claim is filed, the player "clears waivers" and the team is free to trade him at will. If a claim is filed, the player's team may trade him to the claiming team, or withdraw the waiver request (and keep the player). Teams routinely place many players on the waiver wire just to free them up; claim trades do happen but are not very common. (Sometimes this backfires; team "A", hoping to prevent team "B" from getting a certain player, files a claim so that "B", which is ahead in the standings, doesn't get the player and help its pennant chances. "A" doesn't really want him, just wants to block him -- but the filing team agrees. Team "A" is now stuck and has to make a trade for the player. At least one of these happened in the last ten years but I cannot recall the specific player.)

If the player clears waivers, he can be traded (subject to any trade restriction rights he has in his contract or granted by terms of the CBA). Players traded by 16:00 Eastern, 31-August, are eligible for postseason play with their new teams.

Players can be traded in September but are not eligible for postseason play. This happened with Mike Stanton in 2005 -- Boston picked him up in very late September, he pitched in one game, but was not eligible for the Division Series (where the Red Sox were eliminated).

Answer 2

For the month of August players can only be traded after they clear waivers. Meaning when a player is put on the waiver wire other teams can claim that player starting with the team that has the worst record up to the best record. If a player is claimed a team can either work out a trade with the team that claimed him, give him outright or pull him back off of waivers and keep him.

After July 31st most teams will usually put most of their players on waivers right away so they can clear and then teams are free to make deals without worrying about waivers. In the old days most teams were pretty good about letting the market play out and not many players were claimed. Now there is a lot more gamesmanship, and a lot more players are claimed so they can not be traded (once a player is pulled back they can not be placed on waivers again) The risk is when a team claims an expensive older player to block a trade the original team may just say he is yours and dump his salary on you.

Answer 3

A player has to clear through waivers.

Answer 4

You'd be surprised what you can do with waivers.