The waivers system is a complicated process in baseball that allows players to be traded even after the trade deadline has passed. Several players are placed on waivers, as it allows many teams the chance to rid themselves of a bad contract. Only problem is often times nobody’s interested in claiming a weak-hitting Andruw Jones-type at an overpriced $18 million a season. But sometimes good players get placed on waivers and a team in the pennant race won’t have a problem taking on the contract so long as they feel it makes them better. That’s precisely what happened with the Red Sox, who claimed Brian Giles off waivers this week. The two sides then had 48 hours to work out a deal that would have sent Giles to Boston in some sort of a trade. Only problem, Brian Giles decided to veto such a deal.
Now, there are several ways to view this move by Giles, but one obviously is precisely how I described it — winning can’t be too high on his agenda if he’s blocking a trade from a team 27 games under .500 and sporting the worst record in baseball, to the defending World Series Champs who have the 4th best record in the game and currently occupying a playoff spot. That’s all I’m saying. We do know that Giles has literally earned the right to block such a trade because it was negotiated into his contract, and we do know that he grew up in San Diego and his entire family is in San Diego. All that I get. But like I said, obviously winning isn’t too much of a priority for him if he’s blocking this trade. Not to say that it’s the wrong move for him, considering of course that the Red Sox might not repeat as champions, but how many guys block a move from the worst team in baseball to a playoff team? Not many that I know of, especially for a guy who came that close to winning in ’97 with the Indians. Just sayin’.
