Placed On Waivers: Kyle Lohse, Dan Haren
Here is Thursday's rundown of names that have been placed on revocable trade waivers…
- Kyle Lohse: The Brewers placed Lohse on waivers yesterday, tweets Danny Knobler of CBS Sports. The claiming period for him ends tomorrow. The 34-year-old Lohse is enjoying another fine campaign in his first season with Milwaukee. He's pitched to a 3.23 ERA with 5.8 K/9, 1.5 BB/9 and a 39.2 percent ground-ball rate in 139 1/3 innings on the season. Lohse is owed $11MM in each of the next two seasons and is earning $11MM this season as well. However, $7MM of that total is deferred to 2016-18, so he's technically only owed $1.136MM of this year's $4MM guarantee. Lohse's cost isn't exorbitant, but an additional $22MM for his age-35 and age-36 seasons may give some teams pause.
- Dan Haren: Knobler also tweets that the Nationals placed Haren on waivers today. Washington was clearly expecting more when they signed Haren to a one-year, $13MM contract this offseason. The former ace has just a 5.14 ERA, though he's posted a strong 8.0 K/9 rate with his usual elite command (1.7 BB/9). Haren has been bitten by the homer bug, allowing an NL-leading 21 bombs this season. Haren's past five starts have showed promise, though. He's sporting a 2.40 ERA in that time with 32 strikeouts against eight walks in 30 innings. Most importantly, he's surrendered just two homers in that time. He's owed just under $3.7MM for the remainder of the year.
For a reminder on how revocable trade waivers and August trades work, check out MLBTR's August trades primer.
Placed On Waivers: Saturday
The July 31st trade deadline is behind us, but teams can still make waiver trades happen in the month of August. We'll keep track of players placed on waivers today in this post..
- The Dodgers have placed reliever Brandon League on waivers, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). League is obviously a notable name that could draw interest from clubs seeking relief help, but his contract could be a deterrent. League is owed $1.5MM for the rest of this season, $7.5MM in 2014, and $7.5MM in 2015 with a vesting player option for 2016.
Placed On Revocable Waivers: Gonzalez, Polanco, Harang
Each August, teams will place a large number of players on revocable waivers to gauge interest in their trade value. Because the waivers are revocable, if a claiming team doesn't make a suitable offer, the player's original team can simply pull him back for nothing. Should that player be placed on waivers a second time, they are then irrevocable, so most players only hit waivers once. Should that player clear waivers, however, he's eligible to be traded to any team.
For more info on how waiver trades work, refer to the August trade primer that I posted yesterday. In the meantime, here is Friday's list of players who have reportedly been placed on revocable waivers…
- Mike Gonzalez: The 35-year-old Gonzalez was the most likely trade candidate of this group in July and is therefore the most likely to be claimed. He's earning a $2.25MM base salary this season, of which roughly $713K remains (his contract also contains incentives). He's appeared in a league-leading 54 games this season, en route to a 3.76 ERA with 10.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 through 38 1/3 innings.
- Placido Polanco: Polanco, 37, is on a one-year deal worth $2.75MM with the Marlins. He's owed about $872K over the rest of the season but is hitting just .259/.313/.301. UZR hasn't been a fan of his glove work at third this season, but The Fielding Bible still considers him a plus defender.
- Aaron Harang: The 35-year-old Harang is owed roughly $2.22MM through the end of the season plus a $2MM buyout of his mutual option. He's posted a 4.89 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 95 2/3 innings since being acquired by Seattle, and advanced metrics like FIP (4.32) and xFIP (4.27) feel his ERA should be lower. A claim seems unlikely given his salary.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe was the first to report that Gonzalez, Polanco and Harang were among today's waived players (Twitter link).