Deadline, What Deadline?

Prior to 4 PM July 31 of each year teams are able to make a trade with any other Major League Baseball team. The players must be on an active roster somewhere meaning that you are not able to trade a player who is on the disabled list or the inactive list. They do not have to necessarily have to be on the Major League roster, just an active roster somewhere (majors, minors). Obviously a team must have control over the player being traded. It doesn't work for example if you try to trade another team's players no matter how great the deal is. I mean I would love for the Yankees to trade Jacoby Ellsbury to the Diamondbacks but I am not sure how thrilled the Red Sox would be that the Yankees just traded one of Boston's starters. That may sound ridiculous but not any more so than some of the other deals that got done in the past.

In many cases the teams are relatively free to make any deal they so choose. The Commissioner's office does get involved close to the deadline or in cases where substantial cash is involved in the transaction just to make sure things are all copacetic. The commissioner does have the power to veto a trade if he feels it is not "in the best interest of baseball". That power is very rarely exercised though.

I would love to be able to tell you there is some historical reason why July 31 at 4 PM Eastern Time was chosen but quite honestly I have not been able to find any documented reason why baseball chose this particular day or time. I think traditionally the end of July marked a point when the season was just over half done which should give each franchise an opportunity to assess whether the players they have are capable of leading the team to the play-offs. The 4 PM is probably just so the commissioner's office has an opportunity to review a trade's details and still get home in time for dinner. It also gives those affected players an opportunity to catch a decent flight to join their new teams.

After the July 31 deadline passes that does not mean that trades are not allowed. It just means that it is a little more difficult to get them completed. After July 31 a player can be traded if he has passed through waivers. What that means is that a player can be designated for waivers meaning that the team wants to sever services with the player. Every team in Major League Baseball then has an opportunity to "claim" that player. This is where it starts to get funky.

If a player passes through waivers and no team claims him, the club can negotiate with any Major League Baseball team and the player can be traded to any team. This trade must be consummated by August 31 which is the hard deadline for all player movement.

If a player passes through waivers and is claimed by only one team, the player can still be traded but he can only be traded to the team that issued the waiver claim. The two teams will negotiate the parameters of the trade and must have it completed by August 31. The players on both sides of the equation must have gone through the waiver process to be included in the trade.

If a player is claimed by more than one team then the club with the worst record in that team's league would get priority and the player can only be traded to that team. This is designed to give the worse teams an opportunity to get better during the season.

If a player is claimed only by teams in the other league then the club with the worst record in the other league gets priority and the player can be traded only to that team.

If a deal cannot be worked out between the two teams or if the team decides it does not want to trade its player, the player can be pulled back off waivers and his name removed from consideration. A player can be pulled back off waivers just one time during the month of August. Once he has been pulled back if he subsequently goes through waivers a second time he cannot be pulled meaning any team could claim the player and a deal must be completed.

If a team wants to dump salary, it can allow the player to pass through waivers and allow any team to claim the player and take him for a small waiver fee. The team who picks up the waiver player has to pay his entire salary. This occurred last year with the Diamondbacks when they claimed Joe Kennedy and Byung-Hyun Kim and were subsequently stuck with them when no one else wanted them.

There is a lot of gamesmanship that goes into waiver claims during August. Sometimes teams will claim a player because they want them but a lot of times they will claim a player in order to keep an opponent from also putting in a claim. Nearly every player in baseball will be put on waivers during August but rarely are there many deals completed due to the complicated rules. So as you can see, it is much better to make a deal before July 31 to alleviate having to deal with the waiver wire.

So given all of this, what did the Arizona Diamondbacks do to heighten their chances to take the National League Western Division title? They did absolutely nothing. No deals were made with Arizona although not for the lack of trying. The Diamondbacks attempted to get Mark Teixeira from the Braves and Adam Dunn from Cincinnati but neither deal came through so what you see on the roster is what they will go with for the remainder of the 2008 season unless they want to try dipping their feet in the waiver process again. Just please don't bring back Byung-Hyun Kim, I am not sure I can deal with that for a third time.