re: Braves aquire Nick Swisher/Bourn/$$$ for Johnson

July 31st was the non-waiver trade deadline.
Players can be traded afterwards, but they must clear waivers, and i believe the team recieving the player must pick up his salary.

The waiver deadline is August 31st

quote:

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So I'm not the only one that doesn't get how things like this happen after July every year.

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It's very easy.

Trades on or before July 31 are non-waiver trades. Starting August 1, teams are required to place any player they wish on waivers. Reasons vary, but mostly by August many teams put many of their players on waivers to gauge interest in them.

Once a player is on waivers, teams get a chance to claim them. The claims process goes from decending order of the standings in the waiving team's league. Say the Cubs put Rafael Soriano on waivers--the worst team in the National League gets first right to claim him. Then it goes from worst to first in the NL. After he clears waivers in the NL, it goes the same for the AL.

After a team claims the player, the teams have a certain amount of time (two or three days, I think) to work out a deal. The waiving team has several options to work with--they can allow the claiming team to assume the rest of the waived player's contract (like Alex Rios and the White Sox not too long ago), the two teams can work out a trade, or the waiving team can pull him back from the waiver wire and the player can't be waived again for the season (I think).

In September, trades can be made the same way but the caveat is that any player put on the roster on or after September 1 that wasn't there before September 1 is not eligible for the postseason roster.

I did all that off memory, so I'm sorry if it's not all 100% correct.