The Waiver Wire

So the Trade Deadline is over, it's gone. But you can still make trades. Mack, please will you tell us more? Why, I'd love to!

Now, trades have to be done through the waiver wire, but it's a little more complicated than usual. Teams have to claim players, good teams have to wait their turn behind the bad teams to claim, and there's a time limit for completing the trade. Also, if a player from the National League is put on waivers, the NL teams have a chance to claim him before the AL, and vice versa. Oh, and if no team claims a player through waivers, that player can be traded to any team. I won't completely describe it to you, because you can read Schulman's pretty clear description right here.

I'm sure you know the player everyone talks about the Giants claiming: Adam Dunn. Supposedly, he's already been put on waivers, so a trade would have to happen sometime in the next 3 days. It makes a lot of sense. The Giants reportedly had interest in Dunn before the non-waiver Trade Deadline and even though they are the second best team in the NL, they could have a good shot at claiming him. No other NL team was linked to him as much as the Giants, so I'm not sure any other contenders would all of a sudden have interest in him. Maybe the Dodgers would want to claim him to block him from getting to the Giants, but then they'd run the risk of having to take on his salary, something they won't want to do while their owners are going through an ugly divorce.

Here's the thing, even if the Giants get to claim Dunn, I'm not sure I see it happening. The Nationals were asking for a huge package for him, which is ridiculous considering he's a free agent after this year. I doubt they would be willing to take a lesser offer now; they seem intent on trying to sign him to an extension in the offseason or letting him go and taking the draft picks. I don't think they'd all of a sudden just want to get rid of his salary. And even though I said the Giants might have a good shot at claiming Dunn, you never know. There will be 14 teams with a chance to claim him before the Giants.

If the Giants don't get Dunn I'm afraid Sabean will try to improve the offense by claiming someone like Jose Guillen and the Royals would just let us take him. Gross. I don't mean to be a downer, but it's difficult to see the Giants getting Dunn. But, let's humor ourselves for a second. What if the Nats were willing to take back less because they wanted to get rid of Dunn's salary? What would you give up? I'd say no to including Belt, Wheeler, or any of the major league rotation at this point, but I'd consider a deal centered around Thomas Neal. I know some people don't like Dunn because of his defense and wouldn't want to give up a prospect like Neal for him. But Dunn's defense is actually pretty average at first base and I'm just not convinced Neal is going to be more than an OK player. But tell us what you'd give up or talk about anything else from this post in the comments section. Nothing better than a little rosterbation.

Adam Dunn is disgusted that he has to play for the Nationals and not the Giants.