Trades[edit]

Teams may trade only players currently under contract. Trades between two or more major-league teams may freely occur at any time during a window that opens two days after the starting date of the final game of the most recent World Series and closes at 4 pm Eastern Daylight Time (UTC 2000) on July 31. MLB had allowed trades during the month of August if players cleared waivers, but August trades involving players on a team's 40-man reserve list were eliminated after the 2018 season per the Official Major League Rules, 9(b)(3).[3][4]


Unlike in the NFL, NHL, MLS, and the NBA, teams may not trade draft choices (with the exception of competitive balance draft selections, which can be traded as explained below), but may purchase the rights to Rule 5 Draft Picks.[5]


Beginning with the 2012 season, MLB allows one specific class of draft picks to be traded. As part of a newly signed collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players' union, each team is allocated a "bonus pool"—a set amount of money it can use to sign its draft picks for that year. Teams that go over their threshold can be penalized by losing one or more future draft picks. Those forfeited draft picks will eventually end up in the possession of small-revenue teams, which can then trade them if they wish. The first picks awarded under this scheme were for the 2013 draft.[6]


If a player has been on an active major league roster for 10 full seasons and on one team for the last five, he may not be traded to another team without his consent (known as the 10 & 5 rule). Additionally, some players negotiate to have no-trade clauses in their contracts that have the same effect.


In some trades, one of the components is a "player to be named later" which usually turns out to be a minor league player. The unnamed player is included as part of a trade when the teams cannot immediately agree on a specific player or when the player is not yet eligible to be traded. In these cases, the player in question must be named within six months. Cash or some other consideration may be exchanged in lieu of the player to be named later. For example, during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, the Minnesota Twins traded Dave Winfield to the Cleveland Indians at the trade deadline. Among the conditions of the trade were that if the Indians played no more games in 1994, "Indians general manager John Hart must write a check for $100 made out to the Minnesota Twins and take Twins general manager Andy MacPhail out to dinner."[7]

arrange a trade with the claiming team for that player within two business days of the claim; or

refuse the claiming team's request and keep the player on its major league roster, effectively canceling the waiver; or

do nothing and allow the claiming team to do three things: assume the player's existing contract, pay the waiving team a waiver fee, and place the player on its active major league roster.

Any player under contract may be placed on waivers ("waived") at any time. Before the abolition of August trades in 2019, teams were required to place any player they wished to trade after MLB's July 31 trade deadline on waivers before trading him.


If a player is waived, any team may claim him. If more than one team claims the player from waivers, the team with the weakest record in the player's league gets preference. If no team in the player's league claims him, the claiming team with the weakest record in the other league gets preference. In the first month of the season, preference is determined using the previous year's standings.


If a team claims a player off waivers and has a viable claim as described above, his current team (the "waiving team") may choose one of the following options:


If a player is claimed and the waiving team exercises its rescission option, the waiving team may not use the option again for that player in that season—a subsequent waiver would be irrevocable with a claiming team getting the player essentially for nothing.[8] If no team claims a player off waivers after three business days, the player has cleared waivers and may be assigned to a minor league team, traded (to any team), or released outright.


The waiver "wire" is a secret within the personnel of the Major League Baseball clubs; no official announcement of a waiver is made until a transaction actually occurs, although information sometimes leaks out.[8][9] Before the abolition of post-July 31 trades, players were often waived during the post-July "waiver-required" trading period for teams to gauge trade interest in a particular player.[8] Usually, when the player was claimed, the waiving team would rescind the waiver to avoid losing the player unless a trade could be worked out with the claiming team.


The National League (NL) was the first of the two major leagues to adopt the trade deadline rule in 1917. Originally it was enforced after June 15, but was later changed as the result of a new collective bargaining agreement.[10] For many years, players could not be traded from one league to another without being waived by all of the teams in the trading team's league. Then, in 1959, an inter-league trading period was established, centered on the winter baseball meetings in December. Later, there were two "inter-league" trading periods each year, one from after the World Series until mid-December and the second from a week before spring training began until March 15. So intent were leagues on keeping their stars from being moved from one league to the other, that then–National League President Warren Giles threatened to keep NL clubs from trading major stars to the American League after the deal that sent Frank Robinson from Cincinnati to Baltimore.[11]

Assignment to a minor league team[edit]

Options[edit]

Options are directed by MLB Rule 11 (C).[12] A player has a finite number of option years in which he may be moved between the major and minor leagues up to five times per season as of 2022; previously, a player could be optioned an unlimited amount of times subject to the 15 day wait period for pitchers and two-way players and 10 day wait period for hitters except when either the "27th man" or injured list exception applied. If a player is on the 40-man reserve list but not on the active major league roster, he is said to be on optional assignment—his organization may freely move him between the major league club and the minor league club. The rules for this are as follows. (In all cases, an assignment of a player on a major-league injured list to the minors while on a rehabilitation assignment does not count as time spent in the minors.)

Personal leave[edit]

Bereavement list[edit]

The bereavement list may be used when a player finds it necessary to leave the team to attend to a serious illness or death in his (or his spouse's) immediate family. A player placed on the bereavement list must miss a minimum of three games and a maximum of seven games. The team can use another player from its 40-man roster to replace a player on the bereavement list. It was adopted beginning with the 2003 season.

Paternity leave list[edit]

The paternity leave list may be used when a player chooses to leave the team to attend the birth of his child. A player placed on the paternity leave list must miss the next team game, but no more than three games. The team can use another player from its 40-man roster to replace a player on the paternity leave list. This list was adopted beginning with the 2011 season.[21]

the rules that apply to free agents in MLB seeking new contracts or salary arbitration

Free agency (Major League Baseball)

MLB Official Info: Rules, Regulations and Statistics at MLB.com

Transactions Primer by Rob Neyer

Options by Jeff Euston Bizofbaseball.com