How waivers work
Getting a waiver
A team must receive a waiver in order to do some things with a player’s contract. Like:
– assign it to a minor league team, if a player meets some conditions
– trade it to another major league team, under some conditions
– give a player his unconditional release (we saw this with Sexson and Vidro, for instance). We’re not going to discuss this one as we walk through this.
To get a waiver, a team notifies MLB. Waivers are batched up by the day they’re received (days run from 2pm-2pm eastern time). A team can only request waivers on seven players in any day.
Making waiver claims
Then other teams can enter waiver claims. They essentially have two business days to make the claim.
So if tomorrow I request a waiver for Carlos Silva and get that in before 2pm Eastern, other teams have until 1pm Eastern on Tuesday to notify the league they’d like to make a waiver claim.
If no one claims the player, the team requesting waivers gets them and can do whatever it was they wanted to do in the first place. They get a nice waiver notice which presumably is emailed to them.
Who gets a claim
One team claims, they get the waiver claim
More than one team claims, the precedence order goes worst record in the same league to best record in same league and then the other league. This is a dumb rule. The way the precedence is determined is also complicated, and not “record at time of claim”.
Then MLB sends a nice note to the requesting team that tells them what claims were made. The rule is “any claims”.
The requesting team now has a couple of options:
Let the claiming team take the contract
If no action is taken, the player’s assigned to the claiming team. The team losing the player gets a token amount of cash.
This seems to be frequently overlooked. If someone puts on a claim on Carlos Silva in the previous example, and when I call them up they tell me they want an extra player, or they’re just blocking a trade, or they made a mistake and meant to claim another player, well, it really sucks to be them, because in a month I’m going to sympathize with them about how hard it is to get sour cream out of the clubhouse carpeting.
Make a deal
Work out a means of compensation, either in prospects who don’t have to go through waivers, cash, or gift certificates to the Body Shop. There’s a time limit on this.
Withdraw the waiver request
This is the only leverage the requesting team has: threatening to keep the guy.
If the team requesting a waiver on a player can’t work out a deal with the claiming team, they can withdraw their request. The player stays on their team, and if they were requesting waivers for purpose of a transaction, they’re stuck unable to make that move.
If they do that, they can still try this trick again, but with an added twist:
Requesting waivers again
If a player’s pulled back, a team can request a waiver on the same player again (this is kind of confusing in the rules, by the way, which says “no you can’t request waivers twice” and then “requesting waivers twice in the same period…”)
In this case, the waivers are irrevocable: the requesting team can’t pull the player back. So if you request again post-August 1st, the second time whoever wins the claim war automatically gets them. They don’t have to make a deal or anything.
That doesn’t mean that if the player clears, they have to release him.
The Worst Run Organization In Baseball
In case you weren’t sure, today was a great reminder that we’re all rooting for the worst run organization in baseball. There’s not another franchise with worse leadership or more incompetence in positions of power. From the CEO on down, these people don’t know baseball. They don’t know how to run a baseball team, build a roster, or win baseball games.
This organization is a massive collection of failures. They pile ridiculous decisions on top of each other, only outdoing their stupidity with an arrogance that refuses to learn from their mistakes. They are the Pets.com of MLB, only they refuse to go out of business.
I’m far too attached to the childhood memories I have to ever root for another team, but if the M’s screw up this offseason and don’t completely overhaul the baseball operations department, hiring somebody who actually understands baseball, I’ll spend the next few years rooting for these people to fail miserably and be embarrassed publicly.
These people don’t deserve success. They deserve to be looking for new jobs.
Fire them all.
SI reports no deals for Wash, Ibanez
Heyman reports the M’s failed to work out a deal and both players will be returning to the team.
If true — The M’s could have just rid themselves of Washburn’s horrible contract for next year. This is absurdly horrible mistake of the team that should disqualify our interim GM and anyone associated with the decision from even being considered for a leadership position in the future.
Dave adds: Seriously, this is an indefensible position. None of the people involved in this decision deserve to work in baseball. Fire them all.
USSM Public Service Announcement
The next… oh, let’s say three… people to comment that free agents won’t sign with Seattle, particularly in discussions about getting rid of dead weight free agents that signed in Seattle, will be shown the door.
Note To Lee
Jarrod Washburn confirmed that he was told today that he’s been claimed on waivers. This gives the M’s some amount of time between now and Friday (depending on when he was claimed) to work out a deal with the claiming team or pull him back off waivers.
Mr. Pelekoudas, if Jarrod Washburn is pulled back off waivers and is still wearing a Mariner uniform this weekend, we’re going to riot. You have just been given a gift of freedom from one of the many lousy contracts and players your predecessor stuck this franchise with, and it’s time to just cut bait. Let him go. If you can convince another GM to give you something for him, great, we’ll throw a parade for you, but if you fail to capitalize on this gift, your tenure as a GM will be viewed as a failure.
The Mariners don’t need Jarrod Washburn and shouldn’t want Jarrod Washburn. Ridding Seattle of him and his contract is addition by subtraction, and not having him on the team anymore is more than enough incentive to make the deal.
Jarrod Washburn better not be a Mariner on Friday night. Don’t screw this up.
Washburn cleared, or did not clear, or was not placed on, waivers
I’ve resisted posting anything because there’s no news, but this keeps coming up, soo….
If Washburn was not put on waivers:
– He should be
If Washburn was put on waivers:
– He cleared (somewhat vague Times report, PI report)
– The White Sox claimed him
– The Yankees claimed him
Though the White Sox rumors seem to have died out quickly, and since New York leaks like a sieve, that seems unlikely as well.
People who know Washburn’s waiver status for sure:
– MLB teams
– MLB
– Washburn and his agent, probably
That said, we should probably figure he’s cleared. Which would mean, interestingly enough, that teams didn’t want to take on the salary entirely or that they wouldn’t be able to make a deal with the M’s during the available window.
Which is pretty crazy, if you think about it, and a disconcerting indication that maybe the M’s hurt themselves in the deadline negotiations more than was immediately apparent.
Update: Rosenthal at Fox Sports is reporting both Ibanez and Washburn were claimed. Which directly contradicts the Times/PI stories. Also claims it wasn’t the Yankees claiming, for… well, the why not doesn’t make sense, but okay.
Clement’s Position
For years, the question of whether Jeff Clement would stay behind the plate or move to 1B/DH has hung over his head. To his credit, he’s worked extremely hard to improve on his defensive issues, spending countless hours putting in as much work as he could. There’s no one who will ever accuse Clement of not putting in the effort to try and make himself a major league catcher.
It might be time to pull the plug, however. For all of his work, he’s still a really bad defender behind the plate. In 231 major league innings behind the plate, he’s allowed 4 passed balls, 15 wild pitches, and runners have been successful on 15 of 17 stolen base attempts. This is almost all due to the fact that he doesn’t have good footwork, so he struggles to get his body in front of balls in the dirt and he doesn’t get out of the crouch as fast as he needs to.
He’s spent years trying to improve, and he has to an extent, but at some point, you just have to say that he’s still got too far to go, and his time might be best served working on his offense. As a 1B/DH, he could take his work ethic to the batting cage or studying pitchers, rather than trying to make incremental improvements to become a passable major league defender behind the plate. Obviously, if Clement could catch, you’d want him to, because the bat would be far more valuable there. But, at some point, we’ll need to admit that “if” isn’t a realistic option, much like we don’t talk about moving Ibanez back behind the plate to increase the value of his bat.
Thanks to the depth at catcher in the organization, and the complete of lack of a major league ready first baseman, the blow to the M’s wouldn’t be as large as it might otherwise be.
Johjima is obviously here for the next few years, and even with his struggles this year, he’s not this bad. He’s probably a true talent .700 OPS guy, which makes him an okay part-time catcher, even if he’s now really overpaid for that role.
Rob Johnson, always a favorite of the organization for his work with pitchers and his attitude, is finally hitting the baseball down in Tacoma. He’s still got a long swing and he’s never going to be a good hitter, but his offense has improved to acceptable, which makes him a realistic option next year.
Then, there’s Adam Moore, a big kid with defensive question marks who can hit, even though he’s not in Clement’s company as an offensive prospect. He has more gap power than long ball power, and like every Mariner prospect, he swings at too many bad pitches, but there’s some potential there for him to be an offensive minded part-time catcher.
Future all-stars? No, but there’s several options that could be decent behind the plate.
Obviously, we’d all prefer that Clement be good enough defensively to stick behind the plate. But, at some point, we have to decide if that’s realistic. This will be a decision for the next GM, but right now, I have to say that I’m leaning towards moving him out from behind the plate. The M’s need his bat, and I’m not sure he needs the extra pressure of grinding against his naturally poor footwork slowing down his offensive development.
The Tragedy of Jose Vidro
What is a professional hitter without a job?
A chart of where Turbo batted up until his release
During this time, Jose Vidro hit .232/.259/.329, dragging his season line to .234/.274/.338 (fun fact: Betancourt was .222/.238/.289 and Johjima .188/.238/.265 over the same period).\
He ends his time here as the worst DH in the league, one of the worst hitters in all of baseball, and an instructional lesson on how player evaluations based on superficial examinations of batting average and RBI go wrong.
Rainiers Game Thread
With no Mariners game tonight, why not turn the dial and listen to the Rainiers? Lots of interesting stuff tonight in what could be the Rainiers last game ever in Tucson (the franchise moves to Reno next year). Brandon Morrow makes his second start, with a 50 pitch limit, and goes against fireballer Max Scherzer. Justin Upton will also be in the Sidewinders line-up as he continues his rehab stint.
As always, the games are carried live at TacomaRainiers.com or on 850 AM, with the always awesome Mike Curto bringing you the action.
Silva And Riggleman
In case you missed it, there was a decent amount of off the field stuff happening this weekend.
After losing again on Friday night, Carlos Silva went off on his teammates, claiming “maybe half of the team wants to do the best they can” and threatening to “grab somebody by his neck and throw him into the wall”. There’s about a 0% chance that “somebody” in that quote isn’t Yuniesky Betancourt, who air mailed a throw into the dugout that cost Silva a couple of runs. Silva went on to talk about how the starting pitchers all care and are trying the best they can, but that the rest of the team is letting Silva down.
Now, let’s put aside the fact that Carlos Silva is the biggest sinkhole on the roster right now – a $48 million mistake that will haunt this franchise for years. Ignore the fact that the team had played well in the games leading up to Silva’s rant, taking two out of three from first place Minnesota and beating the first place Rays the night before. Put all that to the side, and let’s focus on Carlos Silva’s supposed leadership skills, since you know, he calls himself Chief and all that.
Leaders motivate men to follow their example – Silva fails miserably at his job and blames others.
Leaders protect the inexperienced from attacks – Silva takes veiled shots at others through the media.
Leaders inspire and encourage others to action – Silva threatens physical violence.
Carlos Silva’s idea of leadership is to tell others about how poorly his teammates are doing. Even if he’s correct, his way of handling the situation is anti-leadership. It isn’t keeping the team accountable – it’s making himself more likable to the press and ensuring himself better coverage from those who write about the game and eat that stuff up.
Now, you can think I’m some blowhard who doesn’t know what a baseball clubhouse is like, but don’t take my word for any of this. Here’s Jim Riggleman’s response:
“When I hear someone say something about selfish play, I always just say, You know what, I challenge anybody to go in there and look at the tape of every game from March 31 to the present time and show me an example of somebody being selfish, and I’d stand corrected if you could point it out. But if you’re saying somebody’s selfish, I’ve got to hear some specifics.
“More importantly, he shouldn’t say it to the writers. He should say it to me, he should say it to teammates he’s directing it at. The one thing he was talking about, not using ground balls to move the runner, we’ve done a great job of that. But again, anytime you’re not successful at doing that, it’s the intent that you have to question. And I know the intention has always been to do that, but sometimes you don’t get the result. I know guys have always tried to do that, and sometimes you’re not successful doing it. You don’t intend to give up base hits and walks, but you give them up.
“It’s just the wrong way to send a message. You don’t do that in the paper; you do that internally.
“I admire him more for doing it when he’s 4-13, to tell you the truth. If you’re 13-4 and you’re saying stuff, it’s kind of like, ‘I’m going good so I can say anything I want.’ At least he’s speaking his mind when he’s struggling, so I admire him for that, but again, whether it’s when you’re struggling or when you’re going good, you just don’t do it publicly.
“The stuff that was said, to me (it) was so convoluted that I don’t know who he’s directing it at, I really don’t. If he had spoke to me, I would know who he was directing it at, because I would say, What are you talking about. But until you give a specific example…
“I’m gonna talk to him and a couple other guys. And he’s used the phrase, ‘the starting pitchers,’ like ‘we as the starting pitchers, we’re focused, but some other people aren’t or something.’ That’s ridiculous.
“One of the things that happens is there’s a lot of cliches in the game, and every team that I’ve ever seen that struggled, people will say they don’t do the fundamentals, they don’t bunt runners, they’re not hitting behind the runner to move runners over, they don’t do this, they don’t do that. You hear enough of that, and you look at the numbers, and you find out you’re right there where everybody else in baseball is in sacrifice bunts, advancing runners, and the fundamentals of the game.
“It’s almost like these blanket statements are made, and the perceptions are because you’re losing, you’re doing these things wrong. What it really comes to is we, like most teams, we take care of the little things. It’s big things. We’re not hitting good enough and we’re not pitching good enough. If somebody wants to hide behind, ‘Oh, we made a baserunner mistake or we didn’t move a runner over,’ … and use the word selfish, you can try to act like, ‘That’s the problem right there. That will make up those 30 games.’ But, you know, you’ve got to hit better and you’ve got to pitch better.
“When you’ve got something to say, don’t use the newspaper to say it.”
To paraphrase – Carlos, shut up and pitch better. Kudos to Riggleman for not letting Carlos Silva pass off his lame brand of leadership as something that actually helps a club win. This team has been far too willing to throw each other under the bus this year, and it’s about time a manager stepped up and told his entitled veteran that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
None of this is to say that there aren’t players on this team with work ethic issues (we’ve noted Betancourt’s huge regression and Lopez’s defensive lapses many times here on the blog, so these issues aren’t being ignored), but regardless of what anyone in the media might think, the crap Silva pulled on Friday night doesn’t help the Mariners. There are real ways for leaders to step in and see if they can help the underperformers on the roster to work harder – if Carlos Silva wants to try any of those forms of leadership, he can feel free.
Until then, let’s just ignore the massively overpaid and out of shape #5 starter with a big mouth and hope to God this organization learns that being loud is not the same thing as being a leader.