Rule 5 Draft

[ldsjayhawk]

A team that selects a player in the Rule 5 Draft pays $100,000 to the team from which he was selected. The receiving team must then keep the player on the Major League 25-man roster for the entirety of the next season.

The player can be waived by the drafting team, including to be placed in the minor leagues.  If a team elects to waive the player, the original team gets first option to the player.  If the original team reclaims the player, the drafting team receives $50,000 back from the original team.  If the original team declines, the player will proceed through waivers, as normal.  If unclaimed by any team, the drafting team may place him in their minor leagues.

Once a player is selected, he is automatically assigned to his new organization's 40-man roster.

Eligible Players:
MLB rule: who were signed when they were 19 or older and have played in professional baseball for four years are eligible, as are players who were signed at 18 and have played for five years.

Proposed Armchair rule:  To make things clearer and easier to understand, players become eligible four years after they are signed or drafted.

All players on a Major League Baseball team's 40-man roster, regardless of other eligibility factors, are "protected" and ineligible for the Rule 5 Draft.

Teams may trade a player selected in the Rule 5 Draft, but the same rules regarding roster placement apply to the player's new team.

Teams draft in reverse order of the regular-season standings. Any team that does not have any vacancies on its 40-man roster may not make a selection.

Only the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft will be implemented in Armchair.

To facilitate this change, two columns would be added to the spreadsheet.  One for the year drafted or signed and one denoting rule 5 eligibility.  I will then create a formula which shows the rule 5 eligibility.  No lists will be created.  GMs will be responsible for searching out who is eligible on their own.  These things should keep the work to a minimum.

[Maydab23]

I voted no but I’m on board with some slight changes in the proposed rules.

I don’t think you can do a blanket 4 years in minors before being eligible for rule 5.

What about the 16yo kids we sign in international??? If I’m a competing team I’m not gonna want to use up a bunch of my roster spots (and start the arbitration clock!) on 20yo kids who won’t see majors for another 2-3 years maybe.

However, if I’m a rebuilding club why not take all the 20yo international kids from every competing team using rule 5 and stash them at min salaries on 40man until 3 years later when they are in majors and I’m competing or I can then trade them back at premium prices. Then all these players (which would be most prospects because how many actually make majors by 20yo?) would all be FAs in AFB at the ripe age of around 23. There’s major pitfalls in this.

Also, what I just described above goes against the spirit of the rule IRL. It’s meant to prevent hoarding of prospects who are ready to play in majors but not given a chance by their team. In our league, as proposed, it would be used to pillage prospects who are still not close to being ML ready by teams who are happy to fill a roster spot with a non points accruing player (which takes us back to the tanking issue....)

IRL the rule is not eligible until after 4 years of minors if acquired when older than 19. And not eligible until after 5 years of minors if acquired when younger than 19.

I would argue that because of the fantasy baseball loophole I described above that we would need to be more restrictive than real life, not less.

Perhaps 6 years for intl players and ones drafted out high school and 4 years for drafted out of college. If worried about keeping track and the admin work associated (which is why I’ve originally not been on board with this when brought up the last few years) then maybe make a blanket 6 years until eligible and a single column in sheets that counts the years in minors without having been on a 40man.

Sorry for the mega response but there’s a lot going on in this league right now and while I appreciate everyone’s passion, I’ve been in this league too long to see a bunch of changes go through without people thinking things through and the repercussions.