I disagree. If the AI is willing to accept a trade for the player I claimed, surely they should be willing to claim him in the absence of budget limitations. Why would they give up a player to get someone they could have claimed for free? If they need to dump salary first, that makes sense, but all my tests show that isn't the case.
Just to be clear, I'm not complaining. This is a minor issue. I just think a smarter AI should claim a player that they are willing to trade for. I can only speculate, but I'm guessing that the claiming logic and the trading logic are independent. Just something to consider for future versions.