Waive-o'-Rama - End of Year

malor · 03-12-2026, 05:43 PM

Until full release, I'm only simming seasons, following the Cubs by reviewing their transactions on daily basis.

I notice at end of December 2026, Start of January 2027, in all 3 different sims, the Cubs started claiming lots of wavier players. When they got them, they had to waive someone off the 40 man roster. As they kept claiming more players, the first guys they claimed got cut. All while other teams were claiming their players and then then waiving them again in a few days. The same player went back and forth twice in two weeks.

That is not normal behavior for MLB teams based on my long time understanding of things.

Since I can't see the League News because the white text messages are displayed on a white background (light_ootp) skin I have no idea of it's happening on other teams, but suspect it is. I don't want to spend the time looking.

Can anyone else confirm the Waive-o'-Rama occurring in your games?

Thanks.

snepp · 03-12-2026, 06:36 PM

I've seen a lot of add-to-40 and then immediately waive-and-dfa the same player shenanigans, but I've been working off the USBL quickstart so need to get through a couple more seasons before things get settled in contract wise before I look too close.

I did notice one team claim something like 14 players after the opening day cuts in year 2, that was a messy chain reaction of 40-man related activity.

malor · 03-12-2026, 07:01 PM

That is what I saw too. It was funny watching the same teams trade two different players between them.
Glad to see it's just not my plain MLB pre-start.

doubles · 03-13-2026, 09:04 AM

While not an extremely common occurrence, it really isn't that rare to see real MLB teams claim and waive the same players constantly early in the off-season. I remember a few players who were claimed and waived like 6 or so times before the winter meetings.

By definition, they are bubble players, and there's a lot of bubble activity on 40-man rosters at the end of the season.

I haven't played OOTP27 yet so don't know how the game treats it, but it certainly isn't rare to see waiver ping pong.

snepp · 03-13-2026, 09:21 AM

I don't think anyone is going to debate that it does occasionally occur in real life.

The issue, especially in the last couple versions, has been the increasing volume and frequency of the roster churn.

malor · 03-13-2026, 09:44 AM

In the case I saw, in my opinion, the players being claims were worse playing that the ones being released to make room for the newly claimed player. I checked this for multiple teams during that period involved in the churn.100% in my opinion they were bad moves.
But if the AI had code that says, we have a need, look for the need in waivers, hey he looks good, claim him. Than they get him and need to make room, so again, the AI goes cut the worst player on the roster. Rinse and repeat while making the team worse. I think what made bad is it also seems they did not remove the need so they kept searching for it and claiming players.

Lukas Berger · 03-13-2026, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snepp

The issue, especially in the last couple versions, has been the increasing volume and frequency of the roster churn.

In the offseason it's not unheard of for real life players to get waived and claimed three or four times or more. The AI doing this as well isn't a bug.

The whole complaint from last year was this happening too much through the year, and especially early on and that should be much improved in 27.

03-12-2026, 05:43 PM	#1
malor Major Leagues Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 411	Waive-o'-Rama - End of Year Until full release, I'm only simming seasons, following the Cubs by reviewing their transactions on daily basis. I notice at end of December 2026, Start of January 2027, in all 3 different sims, the Cubs started claiming lots of wavier players. When they got them, they had to waive someone off the 40 man roster. As they kept claiming more players, the first guys they claimed got cut. All while other teams were claiming their players and then then waiving them again in a few days. The same player went back and forth twice in two weeks. That is not normal behavior for MLB teams based on my long time understanding of things. Since I can't see the League News because the white text messages are displayed on a white background (light_ootp) skin I have no idea of it's happening on other teams, but suspect it is. I don't want to spend the time looking. Can anyone else confirm the Waive-o'-Rama occurring in your games? Thanks.

03-12-2026, 06:36 PM	#2
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,707	I've seen a lot of add-to-40 and then immediately waive-and-dfa the same player shenanigans, but I've been working off the USBL quickstart so need to get through a couple more seasons before things get settled in contract wise before I look too close. I did notice one team claim something like 14 players after the opening day cuts in year 2, that was a messy chain reaction of 40-man related activity.

03-12-2026, 07:01 PM	#3
malor Major Leagues Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 411	That is what I saw too. It was funny watching the same teams trade two different players between them. Glad to see it's just not my plain MLB pre-start.

03-13-2026, 09:04 AM	#4
doubles Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 482	While not an extremely common occurrence, it really isn't that rare to see real MLB teams claim and waive the same players constantly early in the off-season. I remember a few players who were claimed and waived like 6 or so times before the winter meetings. By definition, they are bubble players, and there's a lot of bubble activity on 40-man rosters at the end of the season. I haven't played OOTP27 yet so don't know how the game treats it, but it certainly isn't rare to see waiver ping pong.

03-13-2026, 09:21 AM	#5
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,707	I don't think anyone is going to debate that it does occasionally occur in real life. The issue, especially in the last couple versions, has been the increasing volume and frequency of the roster churn.

03-13-2026, 09:44 AM	#6
malor Major Leagues Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 411	In the case I saw, in my opinion, the players being claims were worse playing that the ones being released to make room for the newly claimed player. I checked this for multiple teams during that period involved in the churn.100% in my opinion they were bad moves. But if the AI had code that says, we have a need, look for the need in waivers, hey he looks good, claim him. Than they get him and need to make room, so again, the AI goes cut the worst player on the roster. Rinse and repeat while making the team worse. I think what made bad is it also seems they did not remove the need so they kept searching for it and claiming players.