12.2 Orphan Team Cash
Added 12/8/15
Orphan teams are often left in an uncompetitive state for
various reasons - but whatever the reason often require a
great deal of overhaul to make them viable franchises.
During the off season (or whenever they are adopted) these
orphan teams will get an
additional cash
distribution to allow them to reform their rosters and
take on additional salary or not worry as much about salary
rebates.
12.3 Roster Clean-Up
All players on IR will be put back on active status. This
may put rosters temporarily over the 40-man limit. Lineup
slots, positions, and rotation spots will be cleared.
12.4 Fall Trading Period
Prior to the final selection of the 28 players to be
carried over into the new season, teams will have the
opportunity to trade players. The trading period will begin
after the new salaries and positions are final for the
coming season and after the salary cap distribution has been
made.
There will be two weeks of trading, with deadline dates
to be named each year, as appropriate. There is no cash
assumption/rebate of salaries at this time, since no
salaries have yet been paid for the new season. Teams may
include cash payments, as they do during the regular season,
in the trade conditions.
Special Roster Exemption: Since teams may already
be at the 40-man roster limit (41 including injured
reserve), and there is no mechanism for cuts at this time,
teams will be allowed to exceed the 40-man limit during
these 2 weeks if they participate in trades such as 2-for-1
and 3-for-2. They're going to have to cut down to 28 players
within a week or two anyway.
12.5 Roster Carryover
Modified 4/4/18 in regards to the Prospects
roster
After the salaries and cap are calculated, teams choose
which players that they want to keep for the coming season.
They must follow these guidelines:
- Teams are not obligated to keep a
single player. They could release the whole roster.
- Teams may keep a maximum of 28 players.
- Players on the
team's
Prospect roster do not count against the 28-player
maximum. They may be retained or cut at this time.
- They must have enough money to pay for
all their players at this time. Players on multiyear
contracts have already been paid for, so those salaries
are not calculated into this total.
- Players on multiyear contracts
must be retained. That is one of the risks of
singing players to long-term contracts.
- Teams do not have to conform to roster
minimums but cannot exceed roster maximums (for example,
you cannot exceed the number of allowable players making
over 250 in salary).
- Teams do not have to be able to fill
every position at this time.
- Once the selection process is complete,
the salaries for the next season will be subtracted from
the teams’ cash balances.
The remaining players on the rosters will be returned to
the free agent pool.
Following the cuts made from the rosters, any players on
the Prospects roster will be returned back to the 40-man
roster. As long as they are still eligible, they may
be put back on the Prospects roster again, but that is a
separate transaction that must be repeated each season.
12.6 League Merger/Contraction
If needed, any league mergers will occur now. Details
will be provided at that time.
12.7 Expansion Draft
If there is need to expand a league to a full 16 teams,
an expansion draft will take place at this point.
- After choosing 28 players to keep, each
team must identify 20 to protect during the expansion
draft. Teams with fewer than 28 signed players must make
8 players available.
- All players on multiyear contracts MUST
be protected.
- Teams will arrange the exposed players
in order from 1-8 in importance (only the league office
will know this order).
- The expansion draft will last 4
rounds. In each round, each expansion team will draft 3
players.
- Once a player is picked from a
returning team, the highest-ranked player remaining on
that team's list is removed from the draft. In addition,
no one else may be picked from that team in that same
round.
The net effect is that each returning team will lose 4
players. Each expansion team will have a roster of 12
players at that time.
Further procedural details will be stated at the time of
the draft.
All expansion teams start with the salary cap in cash
PLUS $10 million.
12.8 Redistribution Draft
In reverse order of finish, the league will hold a draft
of unsigned players. Expansion teams will be at the top of
the order.
12.8.1 Draft Order
Teams will be ranked in reverse order of their winning
percentage in the previous regular season following the
redistribution draft, with these exceptions:
- The league champion will be at the
bottom of the list
- The runner-up will be in the 15th spot.
- The other two division winners will be
13th and 14th, based on regular-season record.
- If the league is going through
expansion, expansion teams will be at the top of the
order.
- Any ties will be broken by the same
process used to determine free-agent signing order.
12.8.2 Draft Procedures
- Each team will submit a list of up to 15 draft picks -
5 rounds of 3 players each – chosen from the free agent
lists.
- In the draft order listed above, the league office
will look at the first group of 3 players from each team.
- Any players in the team's group of 3 that are at that
time still available will be awarded to that team. Thus,
the first team in the order is guaranteed to get the first
three players that he/she has listed.
- After going through the first group of three from all
teams, the league office will go through the second group,
and so on for all five rounds. Each round will be done in
the same order as the first.
- If, in any round, one or more of team's selections
have already been taken, picks that they submitted for
later rounds (in order) will be brought up to the current
round until the team can draft three players or the team
runs out of picks.
- An owner may optionally designate an alternate pick
for any or all of the draft choices. The alternate works
the same way as free agency during the regular season – if
the primary pick is gone, the alternate is checked. If the
primary pick is moved to an earlier round, the alternate
goes along. If the primary pick is awarded, the alternate
is discarded.
- If the selection of a player violates roster maximums,
minor league maximums, or causes the cash balance of the
team to go below zero, that player will not be awarded to
that team.
Obviously, the lower you pick, the more speculation you
need to make about which players will still be around when
it’s your turn. Teams at the bottom of the order may need
to go for prospects rather than established veterans.
12.8.3 Multi-week results and weekly adjustment of draft list
Modified 12/15/15
Change for 2015: After each round of the draft,
Benchwarmer Baseball will post the results of that round and
then reopen the list for all teams to change their lists for
subsequent rounds. Teams should submit complete lists
through Round 5 (that allows for players to move up as
needed). If an owner does not change the list between
weeks, the existing draft list remains as is.
Adjustment for 2016: Benchwarmer
Baseball will do three posting of results for the draft,
instead of five:
- Round 1. Teams may then update their draft
lists for Rounds 2-5
- Round 2. Teams may then update their draft
lists for Rounds 3-5
- Rounds 3-5
12.9 Free Agency
On approximately Jan 1, or whenever the Redistribution
Draft is complete, the league will enter a period in which
teams may sign/release players. The exact schedule will be
set in December or January. Teams may also trade with other
teams at this time.
12.9.1 Waiver Order - Off-season Free agent signings
- Off-season signings will utilize a waiver list
slightly different than the regular season.
- Teams will be ranked in reverse order of their winning
percentage in the previous regular season following the
redistribution draft, with these exceptions:
- The league champion will be at the
bottom of the list
- The runner-up will be in the 15th
spot.
- The other two division winners will
be 13th and 14th, based on regular-season record.
- If there was league expansion, the
expansion teams will start at the top of the list.
- Note: This is the same order used for
the Redistribution Draft.
- The team at the top of the list will get the first
pick of that week, and so on.
- Each time the team selects a player, it moves to the
bottom of the list.
- Rather than reset the order each week, as in the
regular season, the order of the waiver list at the end of
the transaction period is carried over into the following
week (through the next-to final transaction date before Opening
Day – Week minus 1).
12.9.2 Waiver Order - Week
Zero and First two weeks of the regular season –
Returning Leagues
Typically, teams are ranked in reverse order of record
for each week’s transactions. However, at the start of the
season, there have not been enough games played to get a
true feel for team strength. Also, in some seasons there may
be a delay in playing early games due to weather problems
around the country. The transaction order for Weeks Zero, 1 and 2
will be set to the same order used in the Redistribution
Draft. In a 2015 change, the transaction order will be
reset for Week Zero.
12.9.3 Waiver Order - Week Zero and First two weeks of the regular season –
New Leagues
For Week Zero, the Transaction Order will be set in reverse
order of total team salary (teams with the lowest team
salary will draft at the top of the list). Because teams may
have cut players during pre-season free agency and received
an 80% salary rebate, this may or may not match the actual
remaining cash balances. The transaction order will not
change for Weeks 1 and 2.
12.10 Complete Rosters
There are no position requirements during the off-season;
you do not have to be able to field a complete lineup yet.
However, you cannot exceed the roster/salary maximums: 40
total players, 28 total players making 250 or more, 16
batters making 250 or more, and 14 pitchers making 250 or
more.
On Opening Day, each roster must include one eligible
player for each field position, to fill the starting
lineup. Other than during first-year league drafts, the
"Prim" and "Sec" positions listed for a player are not
important. If a player has a position listed in either
column, he is eligible to play there.
In addition:
- Each roster must have 5 bench players.
- Each roster must have 5 pitchers designated as
starters.
- Each roster must have 2 pitchers designated as spot
starters.
- Each roster must have 5 pitchers designated for the
bullpen.
- This makes a total of 26 players to fulfill roster
minimums.
Salaries for all signings will be deducted immediately.
During off-season free agency, if you cut a player, you will
earn an 80% salary rebate (it used to be zero, and a change
in 2016 increased the rebate from 50%). Don’t forget that
players on multi-year contracts and players making 200 or
less do not qualify for a salary rebate.
12.11 Salary Rebate Exceptions
RETIREMENT EXCEPTION: If a player officially
retires during the off-season, the player's owner may cut
that player from the team and receive a rebate of the coming
season’s salary. If the player is on a multiyear contract,
there will be no rebate. The owner may be asked to provide
documented proof of a retirement announcement. Players who
talk about retirement, but do not officially announce it or
do not announce until after Opening Day, or just don’t find
a new team during Spring Training, do not qualify for this
rebate.
PATRIOTISM EXCEPTION (The Ted Williams Rule):
Should this country ever return to mandated military service
and a player must leave his team (hey, this still happened
in the early 70s and seems more realistic than when this
rule was first written in 2000), the owner will receive a
full rebate. There is still no rebate for a multiyear
contract.
ACT OF GOD EXCEPTION (The Roberto Clemente Rule):
If a player dies in the off-season, the owner will receive a
100% rebate for the season salary. Again, if the player is
on a multiyear contract, there will be no rebate.
The following are not exceptions and will
not result in a salary rebate (unless accompanied by one of
the above): Injury; Cut by his major league team and not
signed by another; Holdout; Leaving to play in Japan or
Mexico; Being sent to the minors; Playing for the St. Paul
Saints; Playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks; Election to
public office; Drug rehab; Booze rehab; Rehab from hiring
prostitutes; Any other 12-step program; Banned by baseball
for gambling; Suspension for any reason; Jail time. In no
particular order, these are The Pete Rose Rule, The Steve
Howe Rule, The Denny McClain Rule, The Curt Flood Rule, The
Daryl Strawberry Rule (you pick which one fits for him).
Once the first Major League regular-season pitch is
thrown, these exceptions are no longer valid. Beginning with
Week 1 Transactions, you start receiving salary rebates
(starting at 80% maximum).
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