The Braves have until Saturday afternoon to either strike a deal with the team that was awarded a claim for Andruw Jones or pull him back. Most likely, the Braves will hang on to Jones. As I learned from Steve Phillips, "all 40-man roster players must go through waivers in order to change teams even if they are in the minor leagues." The old player-to-be-named-later is an option, though that player cannot be an active Major Leaguer.
We know more than one team put in a claim on Jones. Because he’s in the NL, NL teams get first rights to Jones. That’s why I’d guess that the team awarded the claim is not the Angels or Red Sox.
What if it was the Cubs, with an eye towards being competitive in 2007? Would the Brewers, Astros, Reds, or Cardinals get involved?
If a deal were made, I would have to think the team sending away younger player(s) would have a handshake deal with a team like the Cubs to let the kids through.
