Awarding Waiver Claims

WAIVER CLAIM PRIORITY

If a player is claimed by only one club, that club is awarded the claim. If more than one club makes a claim, the club with the lowest winning percentage (regardless of league) either from the previous season (beginning on the day after the conclusion of the MLB regular season through the 30th day of the MLB regular season) or on the day the player clears waivers (beginning on the 31st day of the MLB regular season through the last day of the MLB regular season) is awarded the claim. If two clubs with the same winning percentage make a claim, the club in the player's own league is awarded the claim. If two clubs from the same league make a claim and they are tied in the standings, the club with the lowest winning percentage from the previous season is awarded the claim. If the clubs are still tied, standings from two years back (or three years back, four years back, etc) are used to break the tie.

PROCEDURE FOR AWARDING OF WAIVER CLAIM (TIME OF THE YEAR):

1. Beginning on the day after the conclusion of the MLB regular season and up through the first 30 days of he MLB regular season, the previous season's MLB standings are used to determine waiver claim priority. 

2. Beginning on the 31st day of the MLB regular season through the conclusion of the MLB regular season, the MLB standings as of 9 AM (Eastern) on the day the player clears waivers are used to determine waiver claim priority, with the previous season's MLB standings only used to break ties.

PROCEDURE FOR AWARDING WAIVER CLAIM (WAIVER PERIOD)

Beginning in 2022, if a player has been claimed off Outright Assignment Waivers by a club within a given waiver period and then sometime later in that same waiver period the same player is placed on Outright Assignment Waivers by another club, the club that claimed the player previously in that waiver period will have last (worst) waiver claim priority if that player is placed onto Outright Assignment Waivers again in that waiver period. 
NOTE: If more than one club claimed the player off Outright Assignment Waivers previously in a waiver period, the waiver claim priority for that club or those clubs the next time the player is placed onto Outright Assignment Waivers in that waiver period would be at the bottom of the waiver claim priority list, sorted by the previous season's standings beginning on the day after the conclusion of the MLB regular season through the 30th day of the MLB regular season, and the MLB standings as of 9 AM (Eastern) on the day the player clears waivers beginning on the 31st day of the MLB regular season through the conclusion of the MLB regular season.    

RESTRICTION ON MAKING WAIVER CLAIMS:

A club is not permitted to make a waiver claim and then trade the player to another club if the purpose or effect of the claim was to prevent a third club from being awarded the waiver claim. (A waiver claim that is judged by the MLB Commissioner to have been made for this purpose will be revoked, and the MLB Commissioner can invoke additional penalties against one or both of the clubs involved in the shenanigans).
EXAMPLE: Team "A" claims player off waivers. Team "B" also claimed the player, but wasn't awarded the claim because it had a lower (worse) waiver claim priority than Team "A." Team "A" then trades claimed player to Team "C," which has a lower (worse) waiver claim priority than Team "B."