The Phillies began what will be a series of moves for the waiver portion of the trade deadline. After the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, players may be traded if they pass through waivers. That means if the other 29 teams do not claim the player, they are free to trade them. With a limit of just seven players a day, the Phillies will have to place the team on waivers in chunks.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports:
Source: #Phillies put their first set of players on revocable trade waivers Saturday – Burnett, Bastardo, Howard, Kendrick, R. Hernandez.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 4, 2014
As Rosenthal notes they are "revocable". If a team claims a player, the Phillies could ask for something in return to let that player go to the claiming team. Or, the Phillies could simply let the claiming team have the player. Another option is to revoke the waivers and the player remains a Phillie. Once the waivers are revoked, they may not be issued again.
Howard Eskin of Fox 29 reported the other day that the "entire team" was on waivers. That cannot be the case, because there is a daily limit of seven. The Phillies will probably put everyone on waivers at some point – even the ones they wish to keep – to give themselves trade options during the month of August.
In 2012, the Phillies acted quickly during the wavier period. By August 3, the Phillies had a deal to send starting pitcher Joe Blanton to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
