Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
Last week, I explained how players can still change teams even as trades are no longer allowed. Now that we’re a week-plus into August, I’d like to run down the list of players who could be placed on irrevocable waivers before the month ends, which is the latest that a team can claim them and still have them be eligible for the playoffs. Players placed on waivers are first offered to the worst team in the league, then to the other clubs in ascending order all the way up to the one with the best record at the time of the waiver placement.
I’ll be focusing on teams with playoff odds below 5%, though contending teams teams could see if a rival wants to bite on an onerous contract. (Spoiler alert: they will not.) As a reminder, when a player is claimed off waivers, it’s a straight claim. The team that loses the player gets nothing more than salary relief, as the new team is responsible for the remainder of the contract.
Chicago White Sox
Although they held on to their two most desirable trade pieces, Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr., the White Sox dealt away six players at the deadline. One of the other players who stayed, though, is right-hander Chris Flexen. He hasn’t been good by any means, with a 5.53 ERA and 5.14 FIP, and he’s never put up good strikeout numbers in his career, so it’s perhaps understandable that Chicago couldn’t get what it wanted in a return package for him. That said, there is one thing that Flexen does offer: He can eat some innings (114 IP so far this year). Teams almost certainly don’t want to use a prospect to buy bad innings in bulk, but they might be willing to cover the rest of Flexen’s relatively low salary this year ($1.75 million) to take the load off some of their young arms as they grind through the dog days of August and the September stretch run.
The White Sox almost definitely will place Andrew Benintendi on waivers just to see if there will be any takers, but considering he is one of the worst performers in baseball this season and has three more years and $47.5 million left on his contract after this one, no team is going to let the South Siders off the hook for a bad deal that keeps looking worse every game.
Colorado Rockies
It was a characteristically inactive trade deadline for the Rockies, who traded away relievers Jalen Beeks and Nick Mears but otherwise stood pat in the hopes that 2025 is a little bit better.
I can’t see pending free agent catchers Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings going anywhere. It’s difficult enough to learn a new pitching staff on the fly, which is why catchers are rarely moved at the deadline, so teams might not want to cover their contracts when they have even less time to grasp so much information. And the 38-year-old Charlie Blackmon isn’t going anywhere either. That just leaves big contracts nobody will want: Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, and — gulp — Kris Bryant.
Miami Marlins
Peter Bendix and Co. cleaned house at the deadline, leaving no rentals left on the roster. They’re in full-on evaluation mode for 2025, and the existing personnel will all be part of that, with nobody extraneous remaining.
Oakland Athletics
The last iteration of the Oakland Athletics didn’t do a whole lot before the end of July, trading away Paul Blackburn and Lucas Erceg but holding onto key players Mason Miller and Brent Rooker, who each would’ve transformed the farm system if they’d been dealt.
Oakland still rosters three pending free agents, all of whom could be useful to the right team: Scott Alexander and T.J. McFarland are grounder-heavy lefty relievers who would be perfectly adequate as the second or third southpaws in a playoff bullpen, and Ross Stripling is healthy and has gone five-plus innings in each of his three starts since coming off the injured list. Still, only one of Stripling’s three post-injury starts has been effective, and he’d be owed what’s left of his $12.5 million contract.
Washington Nationals
General manager Mike Rizzo traded away every rental he could at the deadline, but a couple of intriguing ones were on the IL at the end of July and, as such, stuck around.
Trevor Williams was brilliant before he got hurt (2.22 ERA over 11 starts) and is inching closer to a rehab assignment. He hasn’t thrown more than six innings or 97 pitches in any start this year, but if used correctly, he clearly can be effective.
Washington is the latest stop on Joey Gallo’s “we can fix him” tour, and unfortunately it’s been more of the same for him. Just five homers in 165 plate appearances isn’t nearly enough to offset 71 strikeouts, and having a $2.5 million buyout on his mutual option (for which the new team would be responsible) complicates matters further.
Patrick Corbin is also a pending free agent, but it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that he’ll finish out his massive contract as a National.
Los Angeles Angels
It was certainly puzzling when Kevin Pillar wasn’t moved at the trade deadline, but it was reportedly a mutual decision in the veteran’s final season, with the two sides agreeing that the potential return probably wouldn’t be big enough to matter much at all. Still, if Pillar expresses a desire to finish out his career in the playoffs, the Angels would probably oblige, and he would almost definitely be claimed since he’s earning only the league minimum $740,000.
Lefty reliever Matt Moore is more expensive, earning $9 million this year, but he’s rebounded from an atrocious outing on July 19 (two outs, five runs allowed) to throw 6 2/3 scoreless innings across six appearances since. He was excellent from 2022-23.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays were one of the busier teams last month, trading away Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi García, Kevin Kiermaier, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Trevor Richards, Justin Turner, Danny Jansen, and Nate Pearson. The only remaining rental is Ryan Yarbrough, acquired from the Dodgers for Kiermaier. The best version of Yarbrough is useful as a multi-inning arm, but he hasn’t been that for a month now.
Detroit Tigers
Gio Urshela and Shelby Miller somewhat surprisingly stuck around through the deadline, even though both would’ve been useful to the right team.
Urshela may yet find himself elsewhere as he’s on a cheap deal ($1.5 million) and has a track record of strong defense at the hot corner, versatility across in the infield, and good contact hitting. As for Miller, some bad outings have inflated his ERA to a ghastly 5.85, but his interesting fastball that led to brilliance with the Dodgers last year may yet be in there still. He has a club option for 2025 that his new team could exercise if he ends the season strong.
Texas Rangers
The reigning champs have seen their playoff odds take a nosedive even after adding Carson Kelly and Andrew Chafin at the deadline; they just can’t seem to get any momentum going. They may well be inclined to just let the season run its course with existing personnel no matter how low the odds get, but they also have a bevy of rentals that they could expose to waivers to lower the payroll.
All of these players are free agents upon the conclusion of the season, or have mutual options, which are just about never exercised: Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, David Robertson, José Leclerc, Kirby Yates, Kelly, José Ureña, Travis Jankowski, and Robbie Grossman.
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati half-sold at the deadline, trading away rentals Lucas Sims and Frankie Montas but otherwise not transforming the roster in either direction. The Reds could try to get out from under Jakob Junis’ $3 million mutual option buyout by exposing him to waivers, and relievers Buck Farmer and Justin Wilson are pending free agents as well.
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Ultimately, only a few of these players will end up on new teams prior to September 1, and of course, none of them is likely to be as impactful as the guys who were traded. But some of these players could make a difference down the stretch and/or in the postseason. The irrevocable waiver wire is far less exciting to follow than the trade deadline, but it’s still worth keeping an eye on over the next few weeks.
