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Baseball
America provided an update of the rules in early 2010
(December 4, 2006, Jonathan Mayo,MLB.com, on the Rule 5 draft)
Here's the
abridged version of the new rule:
A player
who is 18 when he's signed can spend five seasons (up from four) in an
organization before he has to be protected. Anyone who is 19 or older
must be protected after four years (up from three). Once past that
length of service, a prospect must be placed on the 40-man roster if his
organization wants to keep him from being eligible for the Rule 5 draft.
The draft
has three phases. The Major League phase is the one in which Uggla was
taken. Any Minor Leaguer who fits the above qualifications is game, at
any level. In the Minor League phases, only players left unprotected --
and there are protected lists at each level to consider for these rounds
-- can be selected.
While the
rules regarding elgibility have changed, the costs have not. At the
Major League level, there's a $50,000 price tag to select a player and
the team must create space on its 40-man roster to take a player at this
level. The fee is $12,000 for the Double-A segment and $4,000 for the
Class A draft.
Got it?
OK, now here's the main wrinkle. A player taken in the Major League
phase of the draft must stay on the 25-man roster all season or be
offered back to the original club for half the initial fee.
(October 23, 2006) MLB and the union announced agreement on
a 5-year deal, Highlights (from MLB.com)
Revenue sharing
• Under the new deal, larger-revenue clubs will continue to transfer
$326 million in local revenue to smaller revenue-generating franchises.
Net transfer amounts will continue to grow with revenue and changes in
disparity.
• Tax rates will be reduced to 31 percent for all clubs.
• Smaller-revenue clubs must continue to invest revenue income to
improve the team's on-field performance.
Competitive balance tax
• Levels remain unchanged from the prior contract: 22.5 percent the
first time a club exceeds the threshold, 30 percent the second time and
40 percent the third time. Clubs that paid at a 40 percent rate in 2006
will enter new contract at same rate.
• Thresholds reset to $148 million in 2007, $155 million in 2008, $162
million in 2009, $170 million in 2010 and $178 million in 2011.
First-Year Player and Rule 5
Drafts
• Clubs that can't sign their first- or second-round picks will be
slotted in for a compensatory pick at the same slot in the following
year's draft. Clubs that can't sign a third-round pick will receive a
sandwich pick between the third and fourth rounds at the following
year's draft.
• Clubs have an Aug. 15 deadline to sign all draft selections except
college seniors.
• Minor League players can now be protected from the Rule 5 Draft for an
extra year, to four or five years.
Free agency
• Dec. 7, Dec. 19, Jan. 8 and May 1 deadlines are eliminated.
• Date to tender contracts moved to Dec. 12 from Dec. 20.
Free agent compensation
• Type C free agent classification is eliminated.
• Teams that lose a Type B free agent will now earn a sandwich pick
instead of taking selection from club that signed player.
• The pool of Type A players shrinks from top 30 percent of each
position to top 20 percent, while the Type B player pool will be reduced
from the top 31-50 percent of players to 21-40 percent.
Drug policy
• Drug-testing rules will stay unchanged.
• Both sides agreed to further discuss HGH testing in the future.
Minimum salary
• Major League minimum salary will increase to $380,000 in 2007,
$390,000 in 2008, $400,000 in 2009 and to a cost-of-living increase in
2011.
• Minor League minimum salary will increse to $60,000 in 2007, $62,500
in 2008 and $65,000 in 2009.
Other highlights
• Players traded in the middle of a multi-year contract no longer have
the right to demand a trade. Players who currently hold that right from
the last CBA are grandfathered in and can still demand a trade.
• Salary arbitration offer deadline moves to Dec. 1, while the
acceptance deadline moves to Dec. 7.
• All-Star Game winner continues to have home-field advantage in World
Series.
• There will be no contraction during the term of the agreement
• The Commissioner's discretionary fund will remain at $10 million a
year.
• As in the old contract, clubs cannot borrow to pay existing debt but
must raise revenue or reduce expenses to pay existing non-player-related
debt.
From Baseball America :
" ... One
other change to the amateur draft is a uniform signing date of Aug. 15
for all players (other than college seniors), replacing the longtime and
clumsy deadline of the moment a player literally attends his first
four-year college class. In addition to creating some order for all
involved--from teams to players to college coaches wanting an earlier
idea of their incoming class--this also eliminates the junior-college,
draft-and-follow rule in which players who attended two-year schools
could sign with their drafting club until one week before the following
draft."
" ... The
first-year player draft, also known as the Rule 4 draft, was not the
only draft process altered by the new CBA. The major league portion of
the Rule 5 draft will be affected by giving teams one extra year to
protect players from it. Rather than teams being allowed three years
(for players signed at age 19 or older) or four years (for players 18
and younger) before leaving them off the 40-man roster subjects them to
the Rule 5 draft, those periods have been lengthened to four and five.
Ownership considered this a significant boost in their efforts to
operate their minor league systems more effectively."
" ... This
rule applies to this current offseason, meaning that many minor league
players who had expected to either be placed on the 40-man roster or be
subject to the Rule 5 draft will have to wait another year. The union
did negotiate a higher minimum salary for 40-man roster players optioned
to the minor leagues ($30,000 next year), but acknowledged that this was
a significant concession to ownership."
All the
notes below, preceded the agreement above :
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TRANSACTION RULES
(From the New York Mets website)
YOUR
TRANSACTION DICTIONARY
Confused by the difference between Options and Waivers?
Get Your Answers Here!
1. Player Limits
A team's roster may consist of 40 players until Opening
Day, when the number must be reduced to 25 until September 1st, when it again becomes 40.
2. Disabled Lists
You often may hear of a player being placed on the 15-day
disabled list, but there are actually two disabled lists, the 15-day and the 60-day
disabled list. The only difference between the two is that a player on the 60-day disabled
list will not count against a team's 40-man roster. This allows a team to keep an extra
player on the roster while the disabled player remains out.
A player may only be placed on the disabled list for
verifiable medical reasons, that is a player must be certified hurt by a medical doctor.
A player can be placed on the disabled list retroactively
for as many as 10 days, beginning with the day after the last game he played.
Any player may be moved from the 15-day disabled list to
the 60-day disabled list at any time. A player cannot be moved from the 60-day disabled
list to the 15-day disabled list.
A disabled player may be assigned to a Minor League Club
for injury rehabilitation for up to 20-days for position players. Pitchers can be granted
as many as 30-days of Minor League Rehab.
3. Player Options
After a player has played three full professional seasons,
he must be protected on the Major League Team's 40-man roster or he becomes available to
be selected in the Rule 5 draft. If after the three years he is placed on the Major League
Roster, the club then has options on that player.
A player on the 40-man roster but not on the 25-man Major
League Roster is on what is called optional assignment. A player on optional assignment
has three option years, and can be sent up and down as many times as the club sees fit
during those three seasons.
A player who has been in the Major Leagues for parts of
three different seasons is out of options, and must clear waivers in order to be sent down
beginning with his fourth big league season.
4. Waivers
A waiver on a Major League Player is defined as "...a
permission granted for certain assignments of player contracts or for the unconditional
release of a Major League player..."
A Major League Player placed on waivers will have
"cleared waivers" if after three business days following waivers have been
requested he has not been claimed by another team. If a player "clears waivers",
the team has secured waivers on that player for the rest of the waiver period.
A team can do one of three things with a player once he has
cleared waivers. They can send him to the minors, for veteran players with the consent of
the player, they can release him, making him available to other teams, or they can trade
him to another team, regardless of whether or not the trading deadline has passed. In
order for a team to trade a player past the July 31st trading deadline, he must have first
cleared waivers.
If a player placed on waivers is claimed by another team,
the club requesting waivers may withdraw the waiver request. If the club doesn't withdraw
the waiver request, the player's contract is assigned based on certain criteria. If only
one club claims the player, that club is awarded the player. If more than one club in the
same league makes claims, the club currently lower in the standings gets the player. If
the claim is made during the first 30 days of the season, the previous season's standings
are used to determine who gets the player. If clubs in both leagues claim the player, the
player will always go to the club in the same league as the club requesting waivers.
5. Designated for Assignment
When a club designates a player for assignment, it allows
the club to open up a roster spot while it figures out what it is going to do with a
player. Most often a player is designated for assignment so the club can open up his
roster spot while they wait for him to clear waivers. A club may also designate a player
for assignment while they try to trade him to another club.
6. Recalling Players From the Minors
When a player is recalled from the minor leagues he is
either called up or his contract is purchase. A player who is called up already holds a
spot on the 40-man roster. A player whose contract is purchased is not on the 40-man
roster and must be added to it. If a club already has a full 40-man roster, it must drop a
player from the roster.
7. Players To Be Named
A team may make a trade involving a player to be named at a
later date.
There are two restrictions on deals involving players to be
named. Any transaction made in this manor must be completed within 6 months of the initial
transaction. Also the player to be named can't have played in the same league as the team
he is being traded to.
A player on the disabled list can be traded as a player to
be named. This happens because players on the disabled list can't be traded while they are
disabled.
8. The Rule 5 Draft
(also see below)
A player is eligible for the offseason Rule 5 draft if he
is not on the 40-man Major League Roster, if he was 18 or younger when he first signed a
pro contract and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft since he signed or if he was 19 or older
when he first signed a pro contract and this is the third Rule 5 draft since he signed.
A player drafted in the Rule 5 draft must remain in the
majors, be it on the 25-man roster or the disabled list, for all of the following season,
or the club that drafted him must return him to his original club. Since a player to is
returned must first be placed on waivers, a third club can claim the player. The claiming
club would then be responsible to the same rules placed upon the team that drafted him in
the Rule 5 draft.
9. Veteran Players
Any player who has been in the major leagues for five full
seasons may not be assigned to the minor leagues without his consent.
A player with five years of major league service who is
traded in the middle of a multi-year contract may demand a trade prior to the start of the
season following the one in which he was traded.
Any player with at least ten years of major league service,
the last five with the same major league club, may not be traded without his consent.
10. Inter-League and Intra-League Trades
A team may make trades without waivers from 5pm Eastern
time, the day after the scheduled end of the season through July 31st. Waivers are
necessary to make trades from August 1st through 5pm Eastern Time, the day after the
scheduled end of the regular season.
Evan Grant, The Dallas Morning News, Inside the Rangers, March 22,
2005 :
Minor league options ?
Though there are exceptions to every rule in baseball's amazingly arcane
and well-guarded rule book, here are the basics.
When a player is drafted, unless he signs a major league contract (a la
Mark Teixeira), he does not need to be protected on the 40-man roster
for a minimum of three years. (Players 18 or younger at draft time have
four seasons before they need to be protected; 19 or older have three).
Once a player must be put on the 40-man roster, the option clock starts
ticking. Players on the 40-man are, for our purposes, on the major
league roster. To take them from the 25-man roster and place them on a
minor league roster represents an option.
Every player has three options once they are on the 40-man roster. Only
one option is used up per year, regardless of how many times said player
shuttles between the minors and majors in a given season. Also, if a
player is sent down for less than 21 days, he doesn't use an option.
Finally, when a player has exhausted all three of his options, he can't be
sent back to the minors without giving other teams the right to claim
him on waivers (so long as that other team puts him on its 25-man
roster).
If the player goes unclaimed, the team may then "outright" the player to a
minor league roster. He is off the 40-man roster at that point and to be
called back to the majors, his contract would have to be purchased and a
spot would have to be cleared for him on the 40-man roster. And each
time the team chooses to send that player back, he'd have to clear
waivers again. On his second "outright" assignment, a player can choose
free agency.
At last, a quick explanation of the Rule 5 draft
By Alan Schwarz
Note: This story ran in Baseball America in 1995, and has
been dusted off and updated where applicable.
You've seen it written and referred to a zillion ways: the Rule 5
draft, the minor league draft, the rule V drafts, that draft at the Winter
Meetings that's a little too complicated so I'll wait to see if it matters
later . . .
It's actually not that involved, so as a public service we now present
to you an observer's guide to what Baseball America typically refers to as
the major league Rule 5 draft.
The process doesn't shake baseball's rafters, but it does add a wrinkle
to the player-development game that's worth understanding. Every once in a
while, a player makes a significant impact after being chosen,
Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente in 1954 being the classic example.
The Rule 5 draft has been a staple of the Winter Meetings almost from
its beginning and sprung up as a method to prevent teams from stockpiling
talent in their minor league systems. Players not on major league rosters
would otherwise have little or no chance to find an opportunity to play
elsewhere, though that restriction was further eased in the 1980s when
minor leaguers got the right to become free agents after six full seasons.
Major league teams must protect players on their 40-man rosters within
three or four years of their original signing. Those left unprotected are
available to other teams as Rule 5 picks.
Players who were 18 or younger on June 5 preceding the signing of their
first contract must be protected after four minor league seasons. Players
19 and older must be protected after three seasons.
But here's the kicker: To prevent teams from drafting players
willy-nilly, each Rule 5 pick must be kept in the major leagues the entire
following season or be offered back to his former team for half of the
$50,000 selection price. Few players are ready for such a jump, so only
about 10-15 get picked each year. Fewer still last the whole season in the
big leagues.
"They have to keep a guy for the whole year, so a lot of teams are
safe," says Paul Snyder, the Braves' director of scouting and player
development. "But there have been kids drafted out of A-ball.
"A few years ago (in 1984) Toronto got two guys (Lou Thornton and
Manny Lee) who could pinch-run and play defense. They're easier to carry
in the American League because there aren't as many pitching
changes."
Other miscellaneous Rule 5 rules and tidbits:
-
The "Rule 5" moniker comes from its place in the
Professional Baseball Agreement. The June draft, for instance, is Rule
4.
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Teams must file their 40-man rosters by Nov. 20, and only those not
at the full allotment of 40 may select players.
-
Teams select in reverse order of that season's finish, with the
American and National leagues alternating the No. 1 pick from year to
year. The Twins have the first pick this year, followed by the Marlins
(who can't pick as their roster stands at 40).
-
Since 1950, selections have included a low of three players in 1974
and a high of 24 in 1994. The selection price was increased in 1985 to
$50,000 from $25,000.
-
There are Triple-A and Double-A segments of the Rule 5 draft, with
price tags of $12,000 and $4,000 respectively. Minor league players
not protected on the reserve lists at the Double-A and Class A levels
are subject to selection, but almost no future big leaguers emerge
from this process. It's basically a tool for major league teams to
fill out affiliates rather than obtain talent.
-
In 1988, the Braves drafted a player from themselves. They neglected
to protect righthander Ben Rivera on the 40-man roster, had the first
pick in the draft and took him.
-
Players from the 1998 Rule 5 draft to stick all year include Pirates
lefthander Scott Sauerbeck, Blue Jays catcher Alberto Castillo
(acquired this month in a trade from the Cardinals) and Astros
outfielder Glen Barker.
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