Waivers

In leagues with affiliated minor leagues, the concept of waivers is extremely important. Under certain circumstances, players must be "placed on waivers" or "waived" before a transaction involving the player can be made. Waivers last for a fixed amount of time (3 days by default), during which time the player can be claimed by other teams, who can possibly acquire the player without giving up anything in trade. If the player is not claimed, he is said to have "cleared waivers," and his team can proceed with whatever transaction it was planning. There are numerous tricky scenarios within the waiver process, and OOTP does not replicate all the rules exactly as they exist in professional baseball. This screen should give you a clearer picture of waivers in OOTP.

Customizing the Waiver Period

By default, the waiver period is three days. However, this is customizable in the Roster Rules section of the Rules page during game creation, or after game creation by navigating to OOTP Menu | Game Setup | League Setup tab | Rules tab. In the real world, waivers last for three business days. In OOTP, waivers last for the specified number of calendar days.

When Must a Player Be Placed on Waivers?

In OOTP, a team must place a player on waivers in any of the following scenarios:

• The player is being removed from the secondary roster.
• The player is being demoted from a parent league team to an affiliated minor league team and is out of minor league option years.

Revocable and Irrevocable Waivers

In some cases, a team can withdraw a player from the waiver wire if another team claims him, thus keeping the player. These are called "revocable waivers." In other cases, the team cannot withdraw the player, and if claimed, the team will lose the player. These are called "irrevocable waivers."

In OOTP, waivers are irrevocable when you attempt to demote a player from the parent league team to an affiliated minor league, and he is out of minor league options. When placing a player on irrevocable waivers, you will be warned of that fact:



In all other cases, waivers are revocable in OOTP. If you waive a player in a situation that is revocable, you will be asked if you want to withdraw the player if he is claimed:

The OOTP Waiver Process

As mentioned earlier, when a player is placed on waivers, he is made available to every team in the league for a certain amount of time, defined in the league setup. General managers can review the list of players on the "waiver wire" on the Waiver Wire screen at any time, and can attempt to claim a player. If the waivers are irrevocable, then the claiming team claims the player. Once this happens, the general manager of the team waiving the player will receive a message saying that the player has been claimed. If the claim is revocable, the player will be withdrawn, if that option was selected by the general manager of the waiving team. If a team claims a player off waivers, it takes responsibility for the player and his contract.

If a player placed on waivers is not claimed by another team during the specified time frame, then the player is said to have "cleared waivers," and the team can now perform the transaction they had intended.

Waiving a Player

There are two ways to waive a player in OOTP:

1. Go to the Waivers & DFA sub-screen of the Transactions page, and drag the player to the Waivers box, usually located in the lower left:



2. Right-click on any player, select Transaction, then select Waive Player or Waive & Designate for Assignment:



Depending on whether the waivers are revocable or irrevocable, you will receive one of the pop-ups described above.

When Your Waived Player is Claimed

If a waived player is claimed by another team, you will receive a message like the following:



If the waiver was revocable, you have a certain amount of time to take the player off waivers. If you fail to do so, or if the waiver was irrevocable, you will receive a message like the one below.

Claiming a Player

To claim a player, use the right-click menu on the Waiver Wire screen and select Claim Player. If another team with a worse record has already claimed the player, your claim will be denied outright. However, if it is accepted, you will receive a pop-up indicating that fact. However, you still have to wait for the end of the player's waiver period before your claim is complete. During that time, the waiving team may remove him from waivers, or another team with a worse record could claim him instead. If your claim is successful, once the waiver period has passed, you will receive a message like the following.



The claimed player lands in your DFA (designated for assignment) area. Also, any player acquired by waiver claim who was on his previous team's secondary roster must also be placed on the acquiring team's secondary roster.

Multiple Claiming Teams

Claims for a waived player are 'on hold' until the end of the waiver period. That is, waiver claims are not on a first-come, first-served basis. The league takes note of all the teams claiming a certain player and processes those claims once the waiver period has ended.

In the case of a standard MLB setup, teams from the AL have priority over teams from the NL in claiming players from the AL and vice versa. Priority is otherwise determined by reverse order of win-loss records as noted below. The same applies to setups with other sub leagues.

If more than one club in the same subleague claims a player, the club currently with the worse win-loss record gets the player. (If fewer than 31 days have passed in the current season, then last season's won-lost records are used for this purpose.)

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