Don’t Panic! Lincecum, Pence, Lopez Claimed Off Waivers

Everyone was shocked this morning when  Jon Heyman announced on Twitter that the Giants put Javier Lopez on revocable waivers.

Photo by Denise Walos

What most of us didn’t know was Tim Lincecum, Hunter Pence, and Javier Lopez were all reportedly put on waivers on Saturday, two days ago. Tonight, during the Giants game against Colorado in the 8th inning, it was reported they were all claimed off waivers. What next?

Apparently nothing! Thankfully.

In Heyman’s article, he claims that all three of them are staying in SF and someone familiar with the situation said,  “none of them are going anywhere.”

So why do it? Putting players on revocable waivers is one way a team shows they are interested in testing out a players value. They are doing their due diligence, there is no pressure on them to follow through if they don’t want to, and they retain complete control over the player. Then they can take their time and work out a deal for the next season.

The 48.5 hours are close to being up if they were placed on waivers on Saturday. I’m still going to hold my breath until the morning. I don’t want to wake up and hear that Lopez, Pence or Lincecum was traded.

MLB Trade Rumors recently published a rundown of how August trades work. I cut it down and bolded the important facts to reference for our three Giants:

• Teams have to pass players through revocable waivers to trade them after the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. Those revocable waivers last 47 hours.
• A team has three options if one of its players is claimed off revocable waivers. That team can either pull the player back without penalty, work out a trade with the claiming team, or simply hand the player and his salary over for nothing.
• Teams will often put most of their players on waivers to determine interest. There’s no risk in doing so, as they don’t have to actually give up a player that is claimed by another team.
• Regardless of the day of the week (Saturday and Sunday are treated as normal days), clubs have two days (48.5 hours) to deal claimed players. They can only negotiate a trade with the team that was awarded the claim on that player.