I just completed a trade for a Rule 5 guy. My 40 is currently full. I have a couple of guys on waivers and once they clear I will have room for him. Rule 5 freeze is the 6/3 AM cycle. Not sure if my waiver players will clear before the freeze. If they don't, can I just not assigne the guy I just traded for until after the Rule 5 draft to keep him from being taken?

No. If he has the red 5 diamond, he can be taken. If he doesn't, the trade was completed within the acceptable time limit and he can't be taken.

It looks to me like your two guys will clear at the exact moment of the freeze, which means you'll get the slots to draft in Rule 5 but not to assign your guy. Iirc, trades completed <24 hours prior to Rule 5 are exempted, which means your acquisition can be taken in rule 5, so you'll have to find another way to put your guy on the 40.

The better play (20/20 hindsight) was to DFA the two players instead of waiving them. I found out recently that you can DFA minor leaguers that are on the 40 just like major leaguers.

You might be able to release one of the waived guys; I've never tried to release a guy that I've waived but that hasn't cleared waivers yet. Don't know how that would go.

Pretty sure you can't. Pending transaction.

I designated a guy on the 40 who would have been a marginal MLer. He immediately came off the 40. I added the player I traded for to the 40 and put him at AAA. Then I just reassigned the designated player back onto the AAA squad too. The designated player is now available for Rule 5, but it's OK, since he is nowhere near as good as the player I traded for.