Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis clears revocable trade waivers

Even though the Baltimore Orioles were buyers at the trade deadline, one player (so far) has shown up on the August waiver wires.

Baltimore Orioles Chris Davis is one of several highly paid baseball players around the league to be placed on revocable waivers.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, Davis and many other big bats have cleared them, making them ripe for the picking.

While this sounds Davis may be on his way out, this is not the case. General managers often place highly paid veterans on revocable waivers at this point in the season. This list of players who are currently on this list is like a who’s who of big hitters with big contracts. Joining Davis is Bryce Harper, Joey Votto, Yoenis Cespedes, and Justin Upton – just to name a few.

Not performing at his best

Even though Davis isn’t likely to go anywhere, there might be some hope that he would. Crash Davis and his immense biceps haven’t been hitting like they have in previous seasons. He’s now 31 years old and batting below his weight with a slash of .216/.317/.440 and an OPS of .756. He has18 home runs on the season, but he did miss the second half of June and the first half of July with a nagging oblique issue.

SInce returning, his stats have actually declined. Prior to the injury, he averaged .226. Since his return, he’s batted .189. Keeping in mind that Davis is signed through 2022 and is making $23 million for each of those years, his numbers should be better. Davis does still hit for power, but he is nowhere near his one All-Star year in 2013 when he hit 53 home runs and had 38 RBIs. He is also nowhere near his career average of .247.

What the August trades involve

Being placed on revocable waivers is a sign that the Orioles would be willing to trade Davis or give away his salary. At this point, he is the team’s only long-term contract, so the odds are good that he is the only Orioles player who will be placed on revocable waivers. Only Mark Trumbo and Darren O’Day are signed through 2019 and several players have contracts that end in 2018.

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Revocable waivers allow players to be traded after the July 31 trade deadline but the rules create more hoops for teams. August trades begin on the first of the month and extend until month-end. When players are put on the wire, teams have 47 hours to claim them. If no one does, then the player can be traded anywhere. Players can be pulled off of waivers once in August, but this creates difficulty if teams want to put players back on waivers in September.

For the Orioles, the biggest reason to trade Davis is his salary. By putting Davis on waivers, if a team wants him, they simply take over his salary and his contract. The team that would want Davis would pay the Orioles a small fee, then they take the rest of that massive salary. But, if the Orioles want prospects, the process gets more complicated.

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Fans of Davis shouldn’t worry about him leaving soon. The odds are good that he will be an Oriole for the foreseeable future.