Perhaps this can be made into a sticky thread, so there aren't several threads asking how waiver claims work. This info is from here on MLB.com: Waiver Rundown After the July 31 deadline, any player on a 40-man roster must clear Major League waivers before being traded. That is, the player must be offered to the other teams in reverse order of the standings, and if he is claimed by one of the teams he cannot be traded. The club that made the waiver request can either withdraw the request and keep the player or let the player go to the claiming team, which would then have the rights to the player and be obligated to that player's current contract. A waiver, which is a permission granted for certain assignments of player contracts, can get complicated if more than one team makes a waiver claim. If more than one club in the same league makes a claim, then the club currently lower in the standings gets the player. If clubs in both leagues claim the player, preference goes to the club in the same league as the club requesting waivers. If none of that makes sense, think of it this way. Throughout the season, players ranging from superstar to end-of-the-bench, barely-in-the-bigs status routinely and often quietly go on waiver lists. This is a routine manner in which teams can figure out how much interest certain players are gathering from other teams and try to get trade talks going. The same withdrawal guidelines are in effect now, with one big difference in the sequence: Teams waive players with the explicit intent of shedding them and their contracts. In other words, if Team A puts in a claim just to prevent Team B from making a deal, Team A might find itself with an unwanted drain on its payroll. The best example of this came in 1998 with the San Diego Padres, who put in a claim for lefty closer Randy Myers to keep Toronto from dealing the left-handed closer to Atlanta. At the time, the Padres and Braves were leading their respective divisions, meaning the Padres only wanted to deny Atlanta an extra weapon for their guaranteed playoff meeting. They didn't want Myers -- but they got him, and picked up a bill of $14 million for the total of 14 1/3 innings he pitched for the Padres after Toronto didn't withdraw his name. This year, with so many teams so close in the standings and seemingly in the hunt for playoff berths at the July 31 deadline, it's possible that some of the real blockbusters could happen in August.