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If a team doesn't want to keep a Rule 5 pick, he:
- first goes on waivers. Any team can claim him and keep him on their active roster just like they'd drafted him in the Rule 5.
- if he clears waivers then he gets offered back to his original team for $25,000. If his original team doesn't want him, then the drafting team can keep him. Note now he's cleared waivers, so he can be assigned to the minors, removed from the 40-man, etc.
And a team can obviously trade a Rule 5 guy to another team without waiving him first, provided the new team abides by the Rule 5 restrictions.
Teams do also occasionally trade with a pick's original team for the rights to keep (and freely demote) a Rule 5 selection. I don't know anything about the rules governing those transactions, but I'm 98% sure the player does not need to be waived first; that doesn't seem to make any logical sense.
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