Waivers

Waivers take a player’s salary off your cap without releasing him. While he is there, any club in reach can claim him and take over his contract. If nobody does, he stays yours, off the cap and out of the lineup, until you bring him back.

Putting a player on waivers

Choose Waive player in the player’s actions menu, on his page or on his roster row, and confirm Place on waivers. If you need cap room and can live with losing the player, waiving him frees his whole salary. If you want to keep him, assigning him to your affiliate keeps him in the organization and frees part of his salary instead.

While he is on waivers, his salary counts nothing against your cap, this season or next. He doesn’t count toward your roster size while he is there; see roster. He leaves your lineup and loses any captaincy. He can’t play for your club, be traded or be assigned to your affiliate. His contract stays with your club until another club claims him.

Not every player can be waived:

• not a player on an entry-level contract;
• not one in the first year of his contract;
• not one who has signed a contract that hasn’t started yet;
• not one who is injured, on injured reserve or with your affiliate: put him on injured reserve, activate him or recall him first.

You can have only a few players on waivers at a time; at the limit, Waive player leaves the menu until one comes off.

Waiving carries no cap penalty. Releasing a player under contract can leave one; see player contracts and salary cap.

A player on injured reserve who is healthy again must be activated in time. If he is not, he goes on waivers by himself, and a notification warns you a little before. See roster.

Claiming a player

Every player on waivers is listed under Waivers in the Transfer Center. Press Claim on his row, or choose Claim player… in his actions menu. A claim costs you nothing but his contract. A player your club can’t claim shows Out of reach instead; who is in reach is explained below.

The list shows what you need to decide:

• Cap fit — whether he fits under this season’s cap. If his contract runs into next season, a claim also needs room then; see salary cap.
• Salary — his salary adjusted to your league level, which is what he would cost you.
• Claims — how many clubs have claimed him so far, yours included.
• Closes — the day the claims are settled.

My claims shows only the players you have claimed. Your own waived players are marked Yours.

You can claim a player from a club in your league level or one level above or below. A club in a lower league can’t claim a player with a one-way clause. You need room under the cap for his salary this season, and next season too if his contract runs beyond this one.

From the moment you claim him, his salary counts against your cap. It shows as Waiver claims in Finances until the claim is settled or withdrawn. To withdraw, press Withdraw on his row and confirm; you can claim him again while he is still on waivers. The club that waived him is told of every claim.

Computer-run clubs use waivers too: they waive players to make cap room, and claim players they need.

Who gets him

Claims on a player are settled at the end of the day after the first claim; once the playoffs are over, they are settled sooner. If you are the only club to claim him, he joins you then. If several clubs claimed him, a lottery decides.

The lottery favors the club lower in its league’s standings, and a club in a lower league has better odds too. A claim from a club that is no longer within reach of his league when the claims are settled drops out. If every claim drops out, he stays on waivers, and you can take him back or another club can claim him.

His contract comes with him, adjusted to your league level. Every manager who claimed him is told whether he got him, and his old club is told he is gone.

If nobody claims him

He stays on waivers until you take him back. Choose Remove from waivers in his actions menu. His salary counts against your cap again, so you need room for it.

Once a club has claimed him, you can’t remove him unless every claim is withdrawn. If his contract runs out while he is on waivers, he becomes a free agent like any player whose contract ends.

While your assistant runs the club in your absence, he can bring a waived player back to the roster when no club has claimed him and there is room under the cap for him.

Worth knowing

• Waivers don’t close at the trade deadline: you can waive and claim players after it.
• A claim counts his salary against your cap until it is settled or withdrawn, so it can stand in the way of another signing.
• Once a club has claimed your player, you can’t take him off waivers unless every claim is withdrawn.
• A player left on injured reserve too long after he is healthy goes on waivers by himself, even one you could not have waived.