Why Did Brian Giles Play for the Padres today if we Claimed Him on Waivers?
First off, its not just that uniform #24 is suddenly available and Theo misses seeing it being used in the outfield. I honestly don’t think there is anything about a #24 that the Red Sox miss right now, even if Manny is cranking home runs out of Dodger Stadium at a record pace.
But there has to be a reason, right? I mean, they do still have 4 outfielders with both Coco and Ellsbury still on the team, so why would this team be going after Giles? Don’t we still have Bobby Kielty, who hit every World Series pitch (1) he ever saw as a home run?
And if we claimed him this morning, how did he manage to pinch hit today?
Well, the answers are both simple and complex at the same time. The short version of this story is that waiver claims are not binding and they only did it so Tampa couldn’t get him.
The long version deals with the logistics of waivers and how it works, and what it means and how the player, especially in this case, can influence it. Players, literally hundreds of them, are put on waivers all the time now that the trade deadline has passed. The trade deadline is actually only the non-waiver trade deadline. You can still trade players, but you have to give every team a chance to get them. Basically, its a rule meant to protect against collaboration between teams.
The first step is that the Padres have to decide they want to trade him. Not really sure why they’d want to do that, but I guess with the emergence of Chase Headley so far this year, they feel like they can move Giles out of the starting lineup and use him or someone else as a 4th outfielder. I doubt they would really be giving up on the season, especially since they NL West is so bad. So they are probably willing just to let him go and grab a prospect, as its possible nobody will sign him after next year and they wouldn’t get a draft pick. So its nothing or at least something from their perspective.
The national league teams all get a chance to claim him first, in order of worst record to best. He cleared NL waivers, meaning no team decided they wanted to trade for him. Then he hit AL waivers, again, in order of worst record to best. If he had cleared waivers, the Padres would be free to trade him to anyone, but now, since the Sox claimed him, they have to trade him to us or nobody.
This is where it gets interesting. Obviously the Sox don’t need him, and since Giles has a no-trade clause in his contract that can block a trade to Boston (Boston is 1 of 10 cities he can choose not to be traded to), it’s unlikely he will end up here. Even if Giles was willing to come here (unlikely since he won’t start), the Sox could still offer very little in the way of a trade in order to not get it done.
They have 48 hours, so we will see how this plays out, but in the end, it really looks like the Sox are just blocking the Rays from getting that 4th outfielder veteran that they could use in their run for the playoffs.
I say, good move, becuase I’d hate to see Brian Giles push the Sox into third place.
Stumble it!
August 7th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Actually Bobby Kielty was released some weeks back, and with Brandon Moss traded and Coco itchy to be an everyday player (although we haven’t heard much from/about him on that recently) it’s not a stretch to think we’d be looking for another outfielder. I agree, though, doesn’t seem like that was behind this move.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Good call on Kielty, I guess I missed that when it happened. Though he asked out, not the Red Sox actually cutting him.
Still not sure where Giles would actually go though - unless they give us something more and we send Coco to San Diego. Padres definitely could use a center fielder, especially someone like Coco who can cover all that ground in one of the biggest CFs in baseball