Not sure this will answer the question, but what I have gathered.
When a team wishes to release a player, it must first place his name on the waiver list. This allows any other major league team to claim the player's existing contract. The claim prevents the player from bargaining as a free agent for more money or refusing to sign with an unattractive team.
Verlander was placed on
revocable waiver. Teams will place the vast majority of their rosters on revocable waivers in an effort to gauge interest and also as a smokescreen to mask which players they may actually be more amenable to trading. There’s no downside, after all, as each club has the right to pull a player back from waivers the first time that he is claimed.
That said, Verlander’s placement was among the more notable instances of this largely procedural move. With about $65.3MM owed to Verlander through the completion of the 2019 season, he was exceedingly likely to clear. At that point, the Tigers would be able to continue discussing trades with all 29 other teams in the league, though Verlander’s full no-trade clause and sizable contract would continue to serve as significant impediments to working out a trade. ( Crasnick reminds that Verlander’s no-trade protection would allow him to even veto a claim in the unlikely event that a club places a claim and the Tigers were willing to let him go for nothing.)
Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reported that the Tigers were only willing to pay the remainder of Verlander’s 2017 salary — a sum that stood at about $9.33MM. That’d leave any team on the hook for $56MM from 2018-19 in the event of a Verlander trade.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/...age-deals.html
The 34-year-old Verlander wasn't himself in 2017, he averaged fewer than six innings per start with an elevated 4.2 BB/9 rate and a diminished 8.7 K/9 rate. The deteriorated ground-ball rate he displayed in recent years has also held up, as he’s checked in at 33.9 percent in that regard. Overall, Verlander had a 4.29 ERA through 130 frames thru Aug. 2017, though his fastball velocity remained strong (95.2 mph average).
Not sure this will answer the question, but what I have gathered.