Explaining MLB's post-trade deadline deals

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With the Dodgers blockbuster deal to acquire AdrianGonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto from the Red Sox onSaturday, the actual implications of Major League Baseballs trade deadline havebeen called into question.How can MLB claim to have a trade deadline when major dealsfor stars can still occur after the deadline? To give you a sense of how suchdeals work, heres a rundown of baseballs post-trade deadline waiver process:Step One: For any member of a teams 40-man roster to bemoved after the trade deadline, the player must be placed on waivers.Step Two: Teams make claims on the player placed on waivers.When multiple teams place a claim on a player, the team from the same league asthe team waiving the player gets awarded the claim. When multiple teams fromthe same league place a claim on a player, the player is awarded to the teamwith the worst record.Thus, for the Dodgers to win the claim on Gonzalez,every American League team and every National League team with a worse recordhad to pass on claiming the former Red Sox first baseman.Step Three: Once a team has been awarded the waiver claim toa player, three things can happen.In the simplest case, the team currently owning the playermay allow him to leave for nothing. In exchange, the team that won the claim onthe player assumes all responsibility for that players contract.Unless the players contract is exceptionally draining and ateam is simply looking to dump salary, the team controlling the player and theteam awarded the waiver claim will attempt to reach a trade for the player.This is how the Dodgers managed to acquire Gonzalez and his Red Sox teammates.Teams have 72 hours from the time the waiver claim wasawarded to reach a trade. If no deal is reached, that leads to the thirdpossible outcome of a waiver claim. Under the post-trade deadline waiver rules,the team that initially placed a player on waivers may pull that player off ofwaivers one time. So if no trade can be reached in the 72-hour period, the teamcan pull the player back from waivers and keep him on the roster. That playercant be pulled off of waivers a second time in the season, so the player isalmost guaranteed to stay with his current club for the remainder of theseason.In some cases, a team lower in the standings may place aclaim on a player simply to block a competitor from having any chance atacquiring a player. This strategy, called a block, means the team placing thewaiver claim has no real intent to reach a trade for the player; they simplydont want the player to move to a team with which theyre battling for aplayoff spot.Because the Giants have a better record than the Dodgers,they are unable to block the Dodgers by placing a claim on a player in whom Los Angeles has interest.This strategy of blocking can occasionally backfire on theblocking team if the player in question has a high salary. Once the player hasbeen claimed off of waivers, the team that placed the player on waivers may lethim walk, forcing the team that claimed him to pay his salary.Under these rules, trades like the one the Dodgers and RedSox agreed to can occur after the trade deadline. The real deadline on majormoves is midnight on Aug. 31. Beginning on Sept. 1, any player acquired isineligible for the postseason.

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