The "limbo area" and the "permanent waive"

[MrWorkrate]

Not sure if anyone else has run into this.

Had a player on the major league roster who had decent stats but was my 6th outfielder and 33 years old. I needed a spot on the 25 man, so I sent him down, but he needed to clear waivers.

The player was claimed on waivers the first day he was placed. Once the three day period passed, I learned he went to the claiming team where "he had been signed".

Upon scanning the claiming team to see if they had put him in the starting lineup (I was curious), I found that not only was he not in the starting lineup, but he was in AAA!

The player was out of option years, hence me having to put him on waivers in order to send him down. However, the claiming team was able to keep him in AAA, even though I know he couldn't have cleared waivers (the claiming team having prevented that).

I suspect the reason for this was that when a player is claimed (either via trade or waivers) he immedately is placed in the minor leagues, away from the 25 and 40 man rosters. In this case, the player was placed in AAA as a result of the claim, and the team didn't feel the need to call him up, so he remained in AAA.

It's been a major loophole that I can remember from OOTP5, and with the addition of the 40 man rosters, it's a bit more glaring now. I think the easiest solution would be to do something that High Heat had when I played that several years ago. When you aquired a player in High Heat, that player went into an area in their transaction screen where they were completely inactive until you placed them somewhere (majors, minors, etc). In this case, a player who one team was trying to dump because he was refusing a minor league assignment couldn't be traded to another team and automaticly assigned to the minors. He would be in that limbo state, and the team trading for him would get the refusal if they tried to assign him to AAA.

The "limbo area" would also be helpful in regards to waivers. As it stands now, a player out of player options has to clear waivers before being sent to the minors. While this is great, waiting the three days keeps the player on the major league roster the entire time. Often, players who have to clear waivers are being demoted to make room for a player who is immedately needed or coming off the DL. Putting the waived player in the "limbo area" for those three days allows the other player to take his spot on the 25 man roster immedately.

The "permanent waive" is the other major issue I have. I touched on this in another thread, but player who are put on waivers by CPU teams that clear are never removed from the waiver area. While I'm not sure how long the effect of cleared waivers is supposed to last, I know that it's not supposed to last more than one season. However, the way the system is working now, players who are waived by the CPU and clear remain cleared for the entire time they are on that team's roster, allowing them to be demoted at any time (option years remaining or not) or be traded at any time, regardless of trade deadline.

The simplest solution to this would be to clear the waiver area at the end of every season, when the league turns over to the following season.

[beorn]

That's a great idea! It would solve a big problem for on-line leagues using all the new features.