Roster Rules Review and the Next Set of Posts

With my post about trades and the trade deadline, I've finished up my Roster Rules series.

1. The 25 man roster
2. The 40 man roster
3. The Disabled List
4. Free Agency and Free Agent Compensation
   
5. Arbitration
6. The Rule 4 draft (June Amateur)
7. The Rule 5 draft (December)
8. Trades, the Trade Deadlines and Waivers

 Starting Friday, I am going to be reviewing some of the top candidates for the Writers' Ballot for the Hall of Fame.

Roster Rules - Trades, the Trade Deadlines, and Waivers

A trade, essentially, is the movement between 2 or more teams of player contracts. Teams can make trades with any team they choose, involving any players that they choose, but there are some limitations:

• Teams cannot trade players drafted in the Rule 4 draft for 1 year from the date of the draft.
• Players can have no-trade clauses added to their contracts, generally only as a part of a new contract.
• Players can earn no-trade rights by having 10 years of service time in the major leagues, and having 5 years of service time with their current team.
• Players can waive their no-trade rights to facilitate a trade if they so desire.
• Teams can send monetary considerations as a part of the trade. Any amount of $1 million in cash must be approved by the commissioner's office.
• Teams can also include a "Player to be Named Later". Generally, this is a player who has already been determined by the teams involved, but cannot be included for various reasons.
• Free agents who sign a contract cannot be traded until after May 1st of the first season of the contract.

The Trade Deadlines

There are 2 trade deadlines:

• July 31st: The Non-Waiver Trade Deadline
• August 31st: The Postseason Roster Trade Deadline

After the July 31st trade deadline, a player must be placed on waivers and clear waivers before they can be traded to any team. Teams have until August 31st to trade for a player if they want to have them on their postseason roster.

Waivers

Players are placed on waivers in the period between July 31st and August 31st, with very few exceptions. Teams are allowed to make a claim to any player placed on waivers, and based on how many teams claim the player will determine how the claim is rewarded:

• If no one claims a player, they are said to have "cleared waivers", and can be traded to any team 
  
• If only one team claims the player, that team is awarded the claim.
• If more than one team claims the player, the team with the worst record in their own league is offered the claim.

If a player is claimed, they can only be traded to the team that was awarded the claim. If they choose not to trade the player to this team, they can pull him back off of waivers. What this does is make the player essentially untradeable during this period. A team can only pull a player back from waivers once in this time period. If they place the player on waivers again, they cannot pull him back again.

Once a waiver claim has been awarded, the team with the player can try to negotiate a trade with the team that was awarded the claim.

Example:

Alex Rios was placed on waivers last season during the month of August. A claim was placed on him, and this gave the Blue Jays three choices:

• Pull him back off of waivers, and not allow him to be traded without exposing him to waivers a second time.
• Negotiate with the team that won the claim (The White Sox) to try and get something in return for him via trade
• Simply allow the other team to have the player, without any return. The new team would be responsible for the entirety of their contract, and the old team would be off the hook for any of it.

In this particular example, the Blue Jays chose option #3, and were free of the rather large contract of Rios.

Sources:
ESPN.Com article  - Waiver Rules

Roster Rules - Free Agency

Free Agency actually started this morning at 12 AM EST, so we'll go over that topic next.

After a player has completed 6 full seasons in the major leagues, they can file for free agency. Free agency allows a player to negotiate with any team they chose. A player can also become a free agent if they are released by their previous team. Since major league contracts are guaranteed, if a player is released, any team that signs him during the remainder of that contract will only be required to pay the player the minimum salary, and his old team will be on the hook for the rest.

Free Agents may be subject to compensation as well, under the following system:

All players at the end of each season are ranked by the Elias Sports Bureau. They are broken into groups by league, and by similar positional group:

Catchers
1B-OF-DH
2B-3B-SS
Starting Pitchers
Relief Pitchers

MLB Trade Rumors has a breakdown of exactly what they look at for each player. Keith Law of ESPN.com also went into this in quite a bit of detail.

What the end result of this process is that each player is given a ranking:
Type A: Top 30% of their position group
Type B: Top 50%, but outside the top 30% of their position group
All Others: Bottom 50%

Type A free agents, if signed by a different team, earn for their previous team compensation in the form of:

• The first round draft pick of the team that signed the player (if the pick is #16 or higher), OR
  
• The second round draft pick of the team that signed the player (if their first round pick is from picks #1 through #15), AND
• A "sandwich" pick in between the 1st and 2nd rounds.
• These are all in the June Rule 4 draft. (To be discussed in a later post)

Type B free agents, if signed by a different team, earn for their previous team the following:

• A "sandwich" pick in between the 1st and 2nd rounds.

All other free agents which do not qualify as Type A or Type B will not earn their previous team any compensation. Also, any team which re-signs a player that had been on their team prior to filing for free agency does not earn any compensation for that team (since there is no loss to the team).

The key with any compensation is this: The player's previous team must offer the player arbitration by the deadline (usually in the first week of December), or the player must sign prior to December 1st. If neither of these conditions are met, then there is no compensation.

MLB Trade Rumors also has some examples about this as well.

Roster Rules - The Disabled List

The Disabled list is a fairly basic concept. When a player gets hurt, and he is going to be hurt for an extended period of time, you move the player onto the disabled list. There are two different lists, the 15 day, and the 60 day.

15-day Disabled List
This is used to allow teams to bring a player onto the 25 man roster. Any player placed on the 15-day disabled list remains on the 40 man roster. A player can be moved from the 15-day to the 60-day, but not vice-versa.

60-day Disabled List
This is used to allow teams to bring a player onto the 40 man roster. A roster spot is freed up by placing a player on the 60 day disabled list.

In both cases, a player may be placed on either list retroactively up to 10 days into the past, providing that they have not appeared in a game since. Also, players are required to be on the list for the full amount of time (either 15 or 60 days).

Players may also be sent down to the minor leagues for rehabilitation, but there are limits of 20 days for position players and 30 days for pitchers.


Sources:


Wikipedia

Roster Rules - The 40 man roster

Yesterday, I discussed the basics of the 25 man roster. Today, we'll go into the 40 man roster.

The 40 man roster is considered to be the protected roster.

Players on the 40 man roster include:

• All players on the 25 man roster
• All players on the 15 day disabled list
• Selected minor leaguers

Any minor leaguers which a team wishes to protect from the Rule 5 draft must be added to the 40 man roster by November 20th each year.  Only certain minor leaguers are required to be protected:

• If they signed their initial contract by the age of 18, after 5 seasons in the minor leagues
• If they signed their initial contract at age 19 or older, after 4 seasons in the minor leagues

Some other terms related to the 40 man roster:

Recalling a player - Moving a player already on the 40 man roster to the 25 man roster.
Purchasing a player's contract - Adding a player to the 25 man roster that has not been added to the 40 man roster. This player would also be automatically added to the 40 man roster as well.
Designated for Assignment - This is essentially a holding place for a player that is being removed from either the 25 man or 40 man roster. It gives the team 10 days to either trade the player, or put him on waivers.

Options - Once a player has been added to the 40 man roster, they can be freely moved between the minors and the majors for 3 different seasons following that. Some notes:

• If a player does not get sent down during a season, an option is not used. 
• If a player is sent down to the minors during spring training, an option is used.
  
• If a player uses all 3 of his options, he must be put on waivers, and clear in order to be sent to the minor leagues.
  

This roster is also used starting September 1st, and any player listed on the 40 man roster can be used in a game for the month of September. Players on the 40 man roster, but not on the 25 man roster on August 31st, are not eligible for postseason play.

The 40 man roster is probably the most important piece of information for a general manager. It helps protect players from other teams, allows them to draw on a base of players for their team, and can potentially be a financially driven item as well.


Sources:

Wikipedia
Brewerfan.Net

Roster Rules - The 25 man roster

Each team has both a 25 man roster, and a 40 man roster. I'm going to start with discussing the 25 man roster today.

The 25 man roster is also known as the active roster. These, simply put, are the players you can use in a live game. Any player that you wish to use MUST be on the active roster. The key with this roster is this: If you wish to have a player available to play, you must get them on this roster. There are a few ways to get players onto it:

- Place a player on the disabled list (either 15 or 60 day)
- Release a player
- Send a player to the minor leagues (on an option)

Any player that a team wishes to use in a playoff game must also be on the 25 man roster as of August 31st each year.

All players which are on the 25 man roster are automatically on the 40 man roster as well.


Sources:

Wikipedia

Roster Rules Series

As we enter the free agency period, you're likely to hear a lot of terms about transactions that you may or may not be very familiar with. Over the coming posts, I am going to go over a lot of the concepts involved with major and minor league transactions, and the impact that they can have. Some of them are pretty straightforward, and some are confusing. I am hoping to shed some light on those ones.

1. The 25 man roster
2. The 40 man roster
3. The Disabled List
4. Free Agency and Free Agent Compensation
   
5. Arbitration
6. The Rule 4 draft (June Amateur)
7. The Rule 5 draft (December)
8. Trades, the Trade Deadlines and Waivers