In Season Free Agent Signings Being Traded

[lp815]

The issue, pursuant to the pending Rockies-Brewers trade, is the trading of players that were signed between the start of the season and June 1st, when Off-Season free agents are permitted to be traded.

The question is, should free agents acquired between the start of the current season and the same season's June 1st deadline be alllowed to be traded prior to June 1st?

We currently have all off-season free agent signings prohibited from being traded prior to June 1st, but what about in-season free agent signings prior to June 1st?

I'm still debating this myself, but the floor is open for opinions.

[Mr.TradeKing]

All FA's shall be created equal.

Example: What if I can't afford to sign an FA, but another team could; that team could sign the FA just to trade him to me. This would never happen in the MLB. Signing FA's should come with some restrictions.

~MTK

[lp815]

I think I agree with you, MTK.  It doesn't make much sense that if we prohibit trading a player that was signed 3-4 months prior to June 1st, we would allow a player to be traded who was signed 1-2 months prior to June 1st.  This would seem to cause some confusion, that a player signed closer to the deadline is allowed to be moved.

[bridgestone]

I think the intention of the rule was to have it also apply to FA signed during the season in March, April, and May.

[h4cheng]

Can we get rid of this FA restriction rule all together? It doesn't serve any real purpose. We don't have to follow everything that MLB does, the MLB system is pretty broken as is.

[Colby]

Can we get rid of this FA restriction rule all together? It doesn't serve any real purpose. We don't have to follow everything that MLB does, the MLB system is pretty broken as is.

1)  The intention of the rule was for it to apply to in-season FA signed before June.
2)  We are indeed matching MLB here.  It is understandably broken in some regards.  If we didn't match it as much as possible then the first thing to go would be the variable salary cap.  This league is designed to be a challenge for small market clubs.... at least until MLB changes its ways.

[Canada8999]

I won't vote, but I will pose some questions for people to consider for the discussion here:

Why do we want to prevent recently signed FA's from being traded (let's all make sure we agree on the purpose, before we try to adjust the ruling)?
Should a player that was overlooked throughout the off-season be treated the same as a player that was highly sought after?
If you sign a player May 31st, can you trade him June 1st?
If you sign a player June 1st, can you trade him that day?
Should we allow PTBNL trades, offering teams a way around the rule?

[Colby]

I won't vote, but I will pose some questions for people to consider for the discussion here:

Why do we want to prevent recently signed FA's from being traded (let's all make sure we agree on the purpose, before we try to adjust the ruling)?
Should a player that was overlooked throughout the off-season be treated the same as a player that was highly sought after?
If you sign a player May 31st, can you trade him June 1st?
If you sign a player June 1st, can you trade him that day?
Should we allow PTBNL trades, offering teams a way around the rule?

A player signed June 1st can be traded that day.  What are PTBNL trades?

[Canada8999]

A player signed June 1st can be traded that day.  What are PTBNL trades?

Player To Be Named Later

Also - if we need a rule to prevent FA's signed in May from being traded, shouldn't that train of thought be applied to June, July, etc.?

[lp815]

I won't vote, but I will pose some questions for people to consider for the discussion here:

1. Why do we want to prevent recently signed FA's from being traded (let's all make sure we agree on the purpose, before we try to adjust the ruling)?
2. Should a player that was overlooked throughout the off-season be treated the same as a player that was highly sought after?
3. If you sign a player May 31st, can you trade him June 1st?
4. If you sign a player June 1st, can you trade him that day?
5. Should we allow PTBNL trades, offering teams a way around the rule?

1. I believe it's to prevent collusion, in a sense.  To prevent teams from taking a player and immediately moving him to another team, that could possibly be aligned with the other team.  An example would be a team with a large amount of cap signing a player, but having an agreement with another team that cannot afford him to move the player prior to winning said player.  I know this could happen on May 31st/June 1st, in theory, but it's a bad practice and shouldn't be allowed all season.
2. Yes, I think they should.  We should remain consistent with the entire free agent system, to avoid confusion.  I recommend we either do away with restrictions entirely or apply them to all free agents signing up to June 1.
3. Presumably, yes.  It seems unpreventable without hurting the league in some way.
4. Same answer to question 3.
5. I believe we should discuss this after the fact of how we should go about this scenario.

My two cents.