Draft Eligibility/Minor League Eligibility

[Menlo Oaks]

Hi,

I have two questions-- one regarding the initial minor league draft (this upcoming January) and one regarding minor league eligibility in general. 


1. Regarding the initial minor league draft-- reading the constitution, it is my understanding that we can draft any player below the MLB rookie limits (130AB/50IP), which includes July 2 signees as well as unrestricted foreign players entering the league under age 26. Byung-Ho Park, for example, would not be eligible. Is my understanding correct?



2. Regarding minor league eligibility, the constitution says: 


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During the regular season:

A player may be on a team's Minor league roster if:

1. The player starts the year in any DOBL minor league roster and has not been promoted.

2. The player is on a MILB roster (even if they are on a DOBL Major Contract)

3. The player is on an MLB roster, but below the rookie AB/IP limits


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Points 2 and 3 make sense to me, but I'm wondering if someone can clarify point 1 with an example? Perhaps I'm overthinking it. Thanks in advance guys

[Ft. Myers Marauders]

Question 1 you have correct.

Question 2 looks like you're overthinking. Point 1 basically states any player that starts in the minors and stays in the minors, is eligible for our minor league rosters.

DOBL is our other league, I'll change it to AFO.

[Ft. Myers Marauders]

Actually I'm a little off on my explanation. I'll use Corey Seager as an example:

He is currently under 130 ABs and will be drafted in our upcoming draft. The owner that drafts him may keep him in their minor league system all season long, even if Seager gets 600 ABs for the Dodgers. After the season Seager, being over 130 ABs, will need to be either promoted or cut. This promotion would start his 5-year AFO Major League Contract in 2017.

You're not obligated to promote a player in-season when he goes over the 130AB/50IP limit. In our other league I chose to keep Fransisco Lindor on my minor league roster last season because I wanted his production from 2016-2020 instead of 2015-2019.

I hope this makes some sense.

[Deleted]

This clears up a lot. Thank you for asking this question Menlo. The DOBL was throwing me way off.

And the example sheds a good light on how to manage players on the fringe of minors/majors. I was assuming that they must be promoted as soon as they go over the limits. Thanks again!

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

Another point of clarification for fyi purposes...if you trade for a guy you are at the mercy of what the other team did with him. For example, Team A called up Seager to begin the season(which started his big league contract). Team B ends up trading for Seager before he reaches the 130 AB limit. Team B does not get the option of keeping him in the minors all season to save the year of eligibility.

Once a guy is called up to an active roster his MLB contract starts.

[Menlo Oaks]

Thanks for clearing that up guys, makes much more sense now. Seager example was very helpful

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

Things can be tricky now that we are seeing an influx of Cuban players. The easiest way to tell if a guy is available in our offseason minor league draft, or if he will placed in our MLB auction is to read about his signing. If he counts towards the real MLB teams July 2nd bonus pool then he is eligible for the minor league draft(i.e. a guy like Moncada, also Yoan Lopez and Yadier Alvarez to name a few). If they entered the league as unrestricted(i.e. Jose Abreu, Darvish, Maeda(if he signs), etc) will be placed in the MLB auction.

It is mainly important to check on the Cuban players that are coming over. Most of the Asian players(especially those coming from Japan) play significant time in pro leagues over there before becoming posted to the MLB thus they are placed in our auction. And really, almost all of the Latin players come into the league during the July 2nd signing period and are available in our offseason minor league draft.

If there is a specific player you want clarification on please hit me up.

[Deleted]

The players are placed in the MLB auction if over 26 years old, right? A player under 26 would go in the minor league draft, no?

[Ft. Myers Marauders]

Yes, this is just for international signings.

Once the draft starts, the player pool closes. If some 20-year old Cuban signs a week into our draft, they are not eligible. Same goes for the auction. If we start the auction before Maeda signs, he will not be eligible for the auction and will go to free agency after the auction (All FA signings are 1 year contracts and pickups/drops are made daily through a FAAB system).

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

Here is the actual rule NKY----

International free agents are subject to the bonus pool restrictions if they are amateurs. The CBA does not affirmatively define what it means to be an international amateur. Rather, it sets forth exemptions to amateurism:

1) A player who is at least 23 years old and has played professional in a Cuban league for at least five seasons. (This is slightly different from the provision that was controlling during the 2013-14 international free agent signing period that allowed Cubans to sign as a professional free agent if they were at least 23 and had plied their trade for three seasons in a Cuban league.)

2) Similarly, a player who is at least 23 years old and has played as a professional in a league recognized by the MLB Commissioner’s office are also not considered amateurs.

3) A player who has previously signed a contract to play in MLB or the minors is not considered an amateur either.

Again though, the easiest way to tell if the guy is considered an amateur or professional entering the MLB is if he counts against the signing teams bonus pool money, and that is almost always reported when the player signs.

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

I am going to add this to our constitution. Hopefully I can make this clear.

****When it comes to international players if they have played in parts of at least two minor league seasons here in the states they are also eligible for the minor league draft.****

We felt the need to add this because there are players that come over that would be only eligible for our MLB auction per our rules that spend a good deal of time in the minor leagues. An example--Dariel Alvarez who is an OF prospect for Baltimore. He came to the U.S. as an unrestricted free agent in 2013 which would make him only eligible for our auction. He has spent the last 3 seasons in the minor leagues. This new rule allows him to be drafted in our minor league draft where he should be.

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

So everyone knows...the Dodgers recent signee Yadiel Sierra will be available in this years auction. I have seen reports that he is 24 or maybe just turned 25. In any case that is irrelevant because he has pitched in the Cuban professional league for 7 season. With that he enters the MLB as a professional free agent rather than an amateur. We follow MLB's rules on this so he enters our league as a professional as well, and thus he is only available for our auction.

[Deleted]

Thanks Three Lions..

How about the guy the Reds just signed, Alfredo Rodriguez? After reading about his contract, it sounds like it is going against the teams bonus pool.

Based on this, he will be available in the minor league draft, correct?? Does it matter that he played professionally?

[Oregon Three Lions of Madison]

You are correct Gambler. Rodriguez is minor league eligible because he is under the age max(he is 21) and has less than the max of foreign professional experience(he played one year of pro ball in Cuba). Thus, he is considered an amateur by MLB, and us as well because we abide by the MLB rule.

However, he wasn't signed when our draft started so he isn't eligible to be taken. Assuming that he stays under the MLB AB limit of 130 this year he would be eligible for our offseason minor league draft next offseason.

Of course anyone could nab him in the auction this offseason if they wanted to. That goes for any minor leaguer that isn't rostered by an AFO club.


****Disclaimer: This next part is a hypothetical example based on the eligibility of Yadiel Sierra mentioned above. It is an attempt to clear up the minor caveat we added to our rules****
****Read at your own risk****

1) If no one grabs Sierra in the MLB auction this offseason he will again be available only for our MLB auction during next years offseason as well. 2) If for any reason he doesn't get picked up in this years auction AND next years offseason MLB auction AND he remains under the 50 innings pitch threshold he WOULD be eligible for the minor league draft in two offseasons from now. This is because we added the rule that if a player that was formerly only auction eligible plays in at least parts of two minor league seasons he would then become minor league eligible in AFO.