He made his major league debut on April 15, 1984 against the Baltimore Orioles, facing only two batters and giving up a game tying sacrifice fly and a single.

In his first major league start, Waddell pitched six plus innings to earn the win over Ron Guidry and the New York Yankees.

[5] For the season, he made nine starts, including a 7-hit complete game win over Dave Stieb and the Toronto Blue Jays on August 19.

He signed a minor league contract with the Montreal Expos in 1988, and went 3–2 with a 2.95 ERA splitting the season between their double and triple A affiliates.

He held several corporate jobs in Texas and Arizona, including Intuit, the software company that developed Quickbooks and Turbo Tax.