What Does it Mean to Be Cleared on Waivers?

Most professional sports leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL), have a waiver process for their players.

  1. Waivers

    • When a team releases a player for whom they owned the rights, he is said to be "cleared on waivers" and is available for another team to acquire. Basically, the previous team waives its rights to this particular player.

    Claiming a Player off Waivers

    • Each waiver system has an order in which teams can claim the player who is cleared on waivers. In most cases, the first team with rights to claim the player is the team with the worst record. The waiver wire is generally set in order from worst record to best record.

    Additional Waiver Rules

    • Each sports organization's waiver rules may vary, but they all share one purpose--to manage players released from a particular team. In most leagues, a player must have a specific number of years of experience in the respective league to be cleared on waivers. For example, an NFL player must have played for at least four credited seasons.