*Waiver Primer*
 

If you note any errors in the below information, please email/PM me and I will research and correct this.

WAIVERS AND OOTP6

There have been many questions about how exactly the waiver system works in OOTP6. This will attempt to answer those. But before we begin, please keep in mind that the waiver system in the game does NOT follow the same rules as the waiver system in the real MLB. Obviously, there are many similarities, but there are also some key differences. The following also assumes that you are playing with all options ON.

HOW DO WAIVERS WORK?

Generally speaking, you place a player on waivers when you want to remove him from a roster. It can be when you are just removing him from the 40-man roster, the active roster or your entire roster (by trade). Sometimes the game will notify you that you need to need to place a player on waivers to perform a transaction and will do the procedure for you if you affirm the notification. I would suggest going this route for items #1 or #2 below. For item #4, you can simply drag the player to the waiver section of the transaction screen directly.

Once this is done, the player will show up on the Waiver Wire for all to see and claim. He will remain there for a set number of days determined by your league setup. Two things can happen during this time. Either the player will go unclaimed and will clear waivers or the player will be claimed by some team. When a player clears waivers, the game will allow you to perform the intended transaction. However, if the player is claimed, something entirely different takes place. Assuming you can (i.e. the waivers were revocable), you can pull the player off waivers if the waiver period hasn't expired. If you don't or can't, the player will be signed by the team with the worst record, favoring teams in your own league. During the first month of the season, the prior year's records are used to determine this.

Please note that the actual transaction takes place in between days. So the player will show up on some screens as still on waivers with 0 days remaining until this process occurs. Once the process is complete, claimed players will switch teams while unclaimed players will say CLEARED! next to their names.

WHEN DO I NEED WAIVERS?

There are four cases in the game in which waivers are wanted or necessary:
1) Removing a player from the 40-man roster
2) Sending a player out of options to the minor leagues
3) After-deadline trading
4) Salary dumping/ decoy/ etc.

In each case, there is a certain result depending on whether the player clears waivers or not. Let's take a look at these in some more detail in a bit. But first...

TYPES OF WAIVERS

There are two types of waivers in the game. The type of waiver that is used is determined by the situation as noted in the four cases just a little ways below this.

Revocable Waivers: If a player is placed on revocable waivers, you can pull him off of waivers before the waiver period ends even if it is after another team has claimed him.

Irrevocable Waivers: You probably guessed it, but a player placed on irrevocable waivers cannot be removed if another team claims him. If that happens, you will lose the player. Please note that you can always remove a player from waivers if the waiver deadline hasn't passed and no team has yet claimed the player.

REMOVING A PLAYER FROM THE 40-MAN ROSTER:

There comes a time when a manager wants to remove a player from the 40-man roster, whether it is to clear some space to add a player in the Rule 5 draft or to protect someone from the Rule 5 draft. In any case, keep in mind that the change won't happen instantly. It's true that there are "tricks" in which to get this done more quickly. You can release a player and he won't have to clear waivers, for example. Plus, if you make a trade the players that you acquire are not automatically added to the 40-man even if they were on the 40-man for their old team. However, let's assume that you want to do things the traditional way. Well, you'll have to send the player through revocable waivers. One thing to note is that some players will refuse this move. When you try to remove someone from the 40-man roster, you'll get a notice that "The player will accept this assignment" or "The player would refuse this assignment. Either keep him on the 40-man roster or release him." Assuming the player accepts, he'll be sent through waivers. If the player is claimed, you can take him off waivers, but he'll remain on your 40-man roster. You can also let him go to the other team, which will clear the roster spot for you. If the player clears, you can remove the player from your roster just like you wanted to.

SENDING A PLAYER OUT OF OPTIONS TO THE MINORS:

A player starts his career in OOTP with three option years. Since this focuses on waivers, I won't get into how and when players use up option years. When the players options are all used though, you won't be able to send him to the minors again until he clears waivers. Even then, some players will refuse this move anyway and you'll be forced to keep them on your active roster, trade them, or release them. Assuming that the player accepts the move, he'll first have to clear irrevocable waivers. He'll have to clear waivers even if he is staying on your 40-man roster. Now, this is a dangerous game and you'll want to make extra sure that you don't mind the possibility of losing the player, because once a team claims the player he will be leaving your team when the waiver period is up. If, however, the player clears waivers, you can move him right down to the minors and he'll stay on your 40-man roster.

AFTER-DEADLINE TRADING:

(I haven't tested this too extensively, but the tests I have done have led to the following explanation)

After July 31st, there is only one way to trade players. All of the players that are to be traded must clear waivers. Now, to get this to work, you will need to line up the actual trade first in the game. Don't try to use the team transaction screens, because the game has no way of knowing what your purpose is for placing a player on waivers from there. Once the sides agree on the players involved, you'll be informed that the trade can only be completed once the players clear waivers. Now, this works a little differently than other cases. Regardless of roster or contract status, every player involved on either side of the trade has to clear waivers. If any of the players is claimed by any team, the trade will be cancelled and players will stay on their respective teams. If the waiver period passes and all players clear, the trade will be processed as planned. You may be thinking "Gee, how will any trade go through since my opponents can simply claim a player to cancel it?" Well, my suggestion would be to send several decoy players through waivers at the same time. Teams won't want to claim everyone, and if they claim the wrong player, they could end up with a hefty contract to pay or players that are worthless to them.

SALARY DUMPING/ DECOYS/ ETC.

Sometimes, you don't have to put a player on waivers, but you may want to put a player on waivers for some purpose.

Salary Dumping: Waivers can be a good way to get rid of the salary of a high-priced player if you don't want to pay to release him since a claiming team picks up the tab. In fact, I would recommend always putting any player that you plan to release that has a contract on waivers first. If he's claimed, you'll save yourself some money.

Decoys: As you read above, it can be difficult to get a trade to go through after the deadline. By sending several players through waivers in addition to those being traded, you can increase the odds that your players will clear.

Judging Trade Interest: Sometimes you just want to see if there is any interest in a player. By putting the player on waivers, you can see if any team would like him. You can take the player off waivers (don't forget to do it before the waiver period runs out!) and then use the information to possibly negotiate a deal with the interested team

Nice job Sporr.

Very helpful, thanks.

After July 31st, there is only one way to trade players. All of the players that are to be traded must clear waivers. Now, to get this to work, you will need to line up the actual trade first in the game. Don't try to use the team transaction screens, because the game has no way of knowing what your purpose is for placing a player on waivers from there. Once the sides agree on the players involved, you'll be informed that the trade can only be completed once the players clear waivers. Now, this works a little differently than other cases. Regardless of roster or contract status, every player involved on either side of the trade has to clear waivers. If any of the players is claimed by any team, the trade will be cancelled and players will stay on their respective teams. If the waiver period passes and all players clear, the trade will be processed as planned. You may be thinking "Gee, how will any trade go through since my opponents can simply claim a player to cancel it?" Well, my suggestion would be to send several decoy players through waivers at the same time. Teams won't want to claim everyone, and if they claim the wrong player, they could end up with a hefty contract to pay or players that are worthless to them.


What if a post-deadline trade involves a player who is out of options, and therefore on irrevocable waivers?

Thank god we have a manual!

Can you do the same with the service years :eatpop:

In my experience, the post-deadline trade waivers are handled the same regardless of the player's roster/option status. With trade waivers, players claimed always cancel the trade but don't leave the teams with any option to pull back the player. In fact, I don't believe the claiming team will have any chance to actually get the player since players are removed the instant they are claimed automatically. I'll do some more testing to confirm this.

I'll see what I can do. :)

Well done sporr, I'm sure this will help a lot of people that had questions about waivers.

Sticky this!

VERY useful information, thanks!


Todd

Great post, very helpful

Lots of help, thanks Sporr :flowers:

Just a note. I plan to take some time this weekend to test out some stuff and update this. I'm going to do further testing with post-trade deadline waivers as well as nailing down which teams hold waiver priority especially during the off-season and 1st month of the season.

I could have sworn I saw the answer to this somewhere, but I cannot find it. When it says the team with the lowest winning % will get the player, is that the lowest winning % from the current season, the last season, or some other time period?

It would be nice to have more control on which team gets the player. For instance, I'd like to use last year's record, but once a team claims a player they go to the bottom of the pecking order.

You definitely did see it, because it was up there all along. ;)

Doh! Thanks. I searched using a number of terms, but never used "worst". :)

dola..

For players that are not out of options (no "+" by their name) but can refuse demotions ("§"), can they not be demoted even after clearing waivers? I can only demote them after disabling option years which doesn't make sense if they still have option years.

EDIT: Heh, I got past OOTP online league rules confused with MLB and OOTP6 rules. Players with 5 MLB seasons may refuse to demoted even after being demoted: http://www.stanford.edu/~nickpk/base...nsactions.html

for players that refuse minor league assignment, it wont matter if you put them on waiver..because when they clear waiver they will still refuse assignemnt.

so you better hope someone claims him, or trade him or release him, because he wont accept assignment to minors

This might be how it works in real life, but this is not how it is working in 6.03. The team with the worst record last year but a better record in the first week is getting told it cannot put in the claim because the other team has a worse record (only this year though). And it is not caring what league the team is in, it's only looking at whether or not it is a worse or same record. If 2 teams have the same record it will just flip flop them even if they're in different leagues.

EDIT: Markus, if you read this, it would probably be best if you come up with some way for us to determine on our own what team gets the player as many of us use some sort of transactions rights list where a team moves to the bottom of the list after getting a waived player or signing an FA.