MLB Waiver Order: Update On Where Red Sox Stand For Sneaky-Big Day

Thursday is a sneaky-important day for many teams across Major League Baseball — including the Boston Red Sox.

It’s the final day for clubs to add players from outside their organization and still have them eligible to play in the postseason. This is especially notable this year, because several potential impact players hit the waiver wire earlier this week in a rather stunning development.

Most of the waiver dump can be attributed to the Los Angeles Angels, who placed five(!) players — legitimate big leaguers — on waivers: Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk.

It’s a jarring course reversal for the Halos, who were buyers at the trade deadline — acquiring Giolito, López and Grichuk — but now are looking to shed salary after a dismal August that included injuries to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The logic, it seems, is to dip back under the competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold before the end of the season.

The Angels aren’t alone in their waiver activity, either. Harrison Bader (New York Yankees), Carlos Carrasco (New York Mets) and Mike Clevinger (Chicago White Sox) were among the other players placed on waivers by their respective teams, opening the door for plenty of transactions Thursday that could alter the MLB playoff race in some way, shape or form.

You can click here for a full breakdown of the MLB waiver rules, but basically, waiver priority runs in reverse order of record (as of Thursday morning).

Two important notes:

1. If multiple teams have the same win percentage, the team(s) in the same league as the club that put a player on waivers has priority over a claiming team(s) in the opposite league.

2. Ties between teams in the same league with the same win percentage will be broken by last season’s record, with the worse mark from 2022 awarded waiver priority.

(The Red Sox and Twins have the same record this season (69-65) and the same record last season (78-84), so their priority is determined by 2021 record. Minnesota had a worse record (73-89) that year than Boston (92-70).)

Got all that?

Anyway, here is the full waiver order for Thursday, per MLB Trade Rumors.

1. Oakland Athletics, .291
2. Kansas City Royals, .304
3. Colorado Rockies, .368
4. Chicago White Sox, .396
5. St. Louis Cardinals, .433
6. Detroit Tigers, .444
7. Pittsburgh Pirates, .455
8. New York Mets, .455
9. Washington Nationals, .463
10. San Diego Padres, .463
11. Los Angeles Angels, .478
12. Cleveland Guardians, .478
13. New York Yankees, .489
14. Miami Marlins, .496
15. Cincinnati Reds, .511
16. Minnesota Twins, .515
17. Boston Red Sox, .515
18. Arizona Diamondbacks, .515
19. San Francisco Giants, .519
20. Chicago Cubs, .534
21. Toronto Blue Jays, .545
22. Milwaukee Brewers, .556
23. Philadelphia Phillies, .556
24. Texas Rangers, .564
25. Houston Astros, .570
26. Seattle Mariners, .571
27. Tampa Bay Rays, .612
28. Baltimore Orioles, .624
29. Los Angeles Dodgers, .629
30. Atlanta Braves, .659

Players are placed on waivers every year. So, this isn’t totally unprecedented. But the size and scope of this season’s waiver dump is unique, offering playoff contenders an opportunity past the trade deadline to add talent that could significantly alter the postseason race.

The question for the Red Sox: Is it too little too late?

Boston entered Thursday 6 1/2 games back of the American League’s final wild-card spot after dropping four straight, including three in a row to the Houston Astros at Fenway Park.