I'm told that Boston tried to pass Cespedes through waivers, Rockies tried Stubbs and CWS Garcia ( the RF). Some pitchers of note as well will try and find out who.
The mariners came this close to dumping Ackley to the Yankees for a bag of balls on June 30 when he was hitting 8th or 9th and batting 214. He then goes 3 for 4 two days in a row and they took notice - has been one of their best hitters since .
They are blocking all veteran pitchers even if it means they take on salary to keep them form the Angles who lost Richards.
if he gets though without a claim they can trade him to anyone.
Otherwise any team can claim anyone and most of the time the player is revoked. I believe if this happens the team claiming him and the current team can work out a trade, but only those two teams.
If they put Cespedes on irrevocable waivers that would be news (like they did with Manny when he was owed $100+M), this, not news.
Dan, curious what your prediction is on what happens with Colon. Always like to hear your thoughts.
11 million shouldn't be a reason for dumping a productive player with no return when that player 1) Has given you what you paid for this year 2) Has a very real role on the 2015 team. Niese and Gee have health concerns (Gee has quietly had a terrible overall season), Harvey is coming back from TJ, Montero and Thor are 100% unproven. Does a team without money issues dump a Bartolo Colon because he's making 11 million next year with the same rotation concerns/issues as the Mets? I highly doubt it. Colon has been worth 11.6 million through 24 starts which means he has 7-8 more starts and has already been worth his salary.
Colon 2014 FIP 3.40
Niese 2014 FIP 3.92
Gee 2014 FIP 4.62
In fact in 2014 Colon is 32nd in FIP, so 31 starters have outpitched him.. 11 million "off the books" is a scary reason to get rid of a player of his caliber. Get back talent? Sure, he's going to be 42, that's fine. Just to free up 11 million? Bad sign. Get Bedrosian from the Angels, Dodgers have They have enough quasi interesting guys to find a deal. Windle, Reed, Paco Rodriguez, Zach Bird, Schleber.
Dan you're right that a team without money issues shouldn't dump a productive player for $11M, but whether we like it or not, the team DOES have money issues and we'll need to allocate that money toward improving the lineup. Even with Gee and Niese's injury concerns, you have have to expect Harvey, Monerto and Synderggard to be part of the mix. I'd let Colon go and use the $11M elsewhere.
One could argue the only SP the Mets could rely on for 30+ starts next year would be Zack Wheeler, which is scary given the fact this will be his first season doing it. Gee quietly has the 6th worst FIP in all of baseball. We are also ignoring the fact that in order to improve the offense they likely will need to trade some pitching either from the MLB SP ranks or from the "upper" minors ala Thor, Montero, Matz etc.
Strasburg, Harper, and Gio Gonzalez were placed on waivers. It is common.
here is a link to help maybe educate - that it is common and it is true:
Per Nightengale, Desmond and Gonzalez cleared waivers, while Harper and Strasburg were claimed by at least one team but were subsequently pulled back by the Nats.
What's this all mean? Why would the Nats put these four players on waivers during a pennant race?
Let's take a minute to answer those questions and clear this all up.
First of all, don't take Nightengale's report to mean that any of the four players listed above are going anywhere. A team risks nothing by placing its players on revocable trade waivers, and if a player is claimed, as Harper and Strasburg reportedly were, the player can be pulled back off waivers and will remain with his original team.
If a player clears waivers, as Desmond and Gonzalez reportedly did, then that player's team can discuss a trade involving that player with any other team. But again, it doesn't necessarily mean that anything involving that player will happen.
Every year around this time, teams place players on revocable trade waivers largely to determine interest in that player and get a sense of that player's value. It's essentially a way for a team to gauge how other organizations view its players.