The Los Angeles Angels have led the big leagues in a lot of logic-defying choices over the past 15 years, from the Josh Hamilton signing before the 2013 season to their decision to cling to Shohei Ohtani last summer, at a time that he could have gleaned a future-shifting haul of prospects. But their strategy of dumping a bunch of veterans onto the waiver wire this week is viewed by rival executives as smart business -- and it's feeding into a trend that might fuel conversation about another significant rule change.
One rival official lauded the thought behind the possible waiver dumps. "They went for it, but they're out of [playoff] contention now and they're trying to put themselves in a better financial position moving forward," the executive said. "If they know they're not going to keep these players into the winter, and not going to give them a qualifying offer in free agency, it makes sense to try to reduce costs."
If another team claims pitcher Lucas Giolito on waivers, the Angels stand to save about $1.75 million, or about one-sixth of his $10.4 million salary. If outfielder Hunter Renfroe is claimed, that's another $2 million in salary Angels owner Arte Moreno won't have to pay. If each of the six veterans currently on waivers are snagged by contending teams, the Angels could reduce their 2023 payroll obligations by as much as $8 million, taking them below the luxury tax threshold of $233 million -- after a trade haul had just put Moreno above the threshold for the first time in his ownership, meaning his streak would remain intact.
The Angels are not alone in this practice. The New York Yankees, nearing the end of what has been a disastrous season, placed outfielder Harrison Bader on waivers on Tuesday. If he's claimed, the Yankees will save about $1 million in salary, Bader would have a chance to play on a contending team and perhaps in the postseason, and the Yankees' roster will have a spot cleared as the organization shifts its focus to playing prospects in its last regular season games. The Yankees also dumped Josh Donaldson the same day, and the Cleveland Guardians had earlier taken Noah Syndergaard off their roster.
As the moves piled up Tuesday, some club executives acknowledged that the move does run counter to what Major League Baseball aimed for when it altered its rules for the August waiver period in 2019. For years, significant late-season deals could be made after the July 31 trade deadline through the waiver process, allowing the potential balance of power to shift even late in the season. The majority of players would pass through waivers unclaimed, mostly because of a gentleman's agreement that existed between general managers, until some large-market teams -- including the Mets and Yankees -- started to claim significant swaths of players via trade waivers, perhaps most famously when Justin Verlander moved from the Tigers to the Astros in 2017.
Back then, there was conversation among executives about whether these sorts of late-season deals compromised the integrity of the season-long competition, as teams of means effectively added ringers just before the start of the playoffs. The August waiver process was changed and trade waivers outlawed -- now teams can only put players on outright waivers, which means they get nothing (besides salary relief) in return.
These rules came partly with the intent of compelling teams to compete with the rosters built through months of planning and development, and it worked for several years. Now, this new strategy employed by the Angels, Yankees and any team that makes a claim effectively takes advantage of a loophole within those rules. Players with a potential impact on the pennant races and the postseason are likely to move to new teams in the next 48 hours -- and naturally, the big-market teams with more available cash (hello Red Sox, Cubs and Dodgers) could have an advantage over small-market front offices.
Some executives acknowledged Tuesday that the specter of an annual late-August wave of star players being unloaded through salary dumps could make the sport's decision-makers a little queasy. The Angels' actions this week, coldly rational though they were, were something akin to a team flipping over a board game when it realizes it's going to lose. Could it become standard operating procedure for clubs that have fallen out of contention and are looking to save a little money? Time will tell -- and we'll see if this practice draws scrutiny from MLB's decision-makers before it gets the chance to.