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Deadlines
The July 31 trading deadline does not preclude making a deal in August and September. It only means that a player has to clear waivers before he can be traded. Most teams put virtually all of their players on revocable waivers after July 31. If a claim is made on a player, his team simply revokes the deal by pulling him back. If no claim is made, the player can be traded. That’s how the Astros got Jeff Bagwell. Larry Andersen cleared waivers and was traded to the Red Sox, who needed a set up man for the pennant race.
Another deadline that is just about as important as July 31 is August 31. That is the date that playoff rosters have to be set. Still, I’ve seen players traded in September too. This happens when a contending team loses a player to injury and needs to replace him to make the playoffs. They know they can’t use him in post season, but fear there will be no post season without him.
The big deals usually occur before July 31 because the great players can’t clear waivers. But a lot of useful players do clear waivers in August and get traded to teams that have a specific need – like a set up man.
When you put a player who is making a lot of money, like Morgan Ensberg, on outright release waivers, you are virtually assuring yourself of getting nothing for him. If a team is interested in him, that team won’t claim him off waivers, but will instead just wait for the waiver period to end and then sign him as a free agent. That way they don’t have to pay his previous salary, but only the major league minimum salary.
Obviously, the Astros thought there was no way of getting anything for Ensberg and also no way to get another team to pay the rest of his salary. Admittedly, he has been pretty bad. He hasn’t even come close to earning his keep. Still, I have to believe that he still has at least some value. I’ll be interested to see where he ends up. |
