(To the best of my knowledge.)
Waivers are one of baseball's etherial qualities, like the Winter Meetings, service time, Super 2's and Joe Morgan. It seems like no matter how close you get to understanding them, there's some detail that gets missed and, once you find that one detail, makes you go back to square one.
Or maybe that's just me.
At any rate, the Twins put a waiver claim on Oakland southpaw Alan Embree. Embree's been around the block a few times, and at 38 has both the advantage of experience and the disadvantage of being at or near the end of his career. For Minnesota, in spite of his sub-par season, that experience has a lot of value; particularly in those situations where the team really just needs someone to go out and throw, knowing they understand the situation, as opposed to warming up Brian Bass and hoping the hitters get theselves out.
Tim Dierkes speculates that the Athletics wanted more than salary relief for Embree, which is why they pulled him back, but La Velle says "...it's unknown as of right now if the Twins and A's talked." One thing we do know about waivers is that teams will put players out there, even if they have no interest of even listening to potentially interested clubs. One thing that seems to be debatable is whether a player can be traded once he's been placed onto waivers, and subsequently pulled off. Some say the player can't be traded, but Paul DePodesta insists they can. DePodesta, on his blog, says that once a player has been pulled off of waivers he can be placed on them again, but instead of being revocable waivers they become irrevocable waivers. Which basically means you don't put anyone back out a second time unless you decide you really do want them gone, and you don't care to whom or why.
So for now, it looks like the Embree situation wraps up in one of three ways. One: The A's had no interest in trading the left-hander and were merely gauging interest. Two: The A's were trying to get Embree to clear waivers so they could work out a trade, but not to the Twins. Three: Somewhere along the line the Twins and Oakland had conversations for Embree, but no middle ground could be reached.
Really, this is a pretty anticlimactic post regarding the failed waiver claim, because we're no closer to understanding 100% for sure what actually did happen. But at least we know what could have happened. And really, when it comes to personnel decisions most of the time, that's as close as we ever get.