Drafts and Keepers
AA Draft
Majors Draft
AAA Draft
Rule V Draft
Keepers
Majors and AAA Players
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate a select five players on their Majors and AAA rosters as keepers. layers in the (LDB) Majors and (LDB) AAA who are signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2/3) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price less a 10% signing bonus (but no player can be paid less than the league minimum). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a free agent.
Restricted Free Agents
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following draft. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid, as described above. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously traded to another team.
Hometown Heroes
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of their mid-season free agents as their "hometown hero" (HTH). The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars. The HTH cannot be extended beyond that one year, and must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer rookie-eligible.
Homegrown and Super-twos
Homegrown players are players drafted (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the keeper total. After their promotion to AAA or the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:
Homegrown Salary Structure | |
---|---|
Year 1 | $0.4 million |
Year 2 | $0.6 million |
Year 3 | $1.2 million |
Year 4 | $3.6 million |
If a Home-grown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless they are released and not claimed on waivers.
A GM can promote a player in the second half of a the LDB season (week 11 or later) without burning a full year of eligibility. These players are "super-twos", and are treated exactly like home-grown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale. A GM can decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through an email to the commissioner. Supertwos follow the salary structure below:
"SUPER-TWO" SALARY STRUCTURE Year 0 (promotion year, only in final half of season) .4 million (prorated) Year 1 .6 million Year 2 1.8 million Year 3 3.6 million Year 4 3.6 million