External Transactions
Designation for Assignment
Players being cut or demoted to AAA are designated for assignment. Designation immediately removes the player from the Majors or AAA roster, and subjects him to a 3-day waiver process. Such players are available to trade for the next three days. If they are not traded after three days, they are given to the highest waiver claimant. If the player is not claimed on waivers, the player is cut. Designation is not revokable. Refunds are not awarded for players unclaimed on waivers.
Mid-Season Free Agents
Any unsigned player can be acquired mid-season. Players who are acquired mid-year are paid the league minimum.
Players drafted in the AAA Draft with non-guaranteed contracts may be freely swapped for a replacement player who is in the same player grouping (i.e., SP, RP, infielder, outfielder, catcher) for the duration of April. Replacement players cannot be swapped for other replacement players. Players with NG contracts cannot be kept at the conclusion of the season.
Waiver Claims
Any player on waivers can be claimed. At the end of the waiver period, the claim will be awarded to whatever team made the claim that has the lowest overall season-to-date record, measured on the date of expiration of the waiver period. In the case of a tie, the player will first be awarded to the team with the lowest division record. In the case of a further tie, the player will be awarded to the team in a different division. In the case of a further tie, the previous season’s record will be used, with the award to the team that finished in a lower standing. In the case of a further tie, the winning teams will publicly auction on the player for the rights to acquire. Funds paid toward acquisition do not offset any of the assumed salary burden, and are on top of the assumed salary. Awarding a player results in the acquisition of that player, pending roster space being made available for the new player. The claiming team assumes the remaining salary burden of the player, calculated by remaining weeks in the LDB regular season.
Trades
Trades may occur at any point in the off-season and during the season, up to the league trade deadline, which will be the end of week 15. All trades must have timestamp of 11:59 PM EST[1] on Sunday of week 15 or earlier, or have been announced to the league in a reasonable manner before that deadline.
Trades will be subject to approval by a vote of the other managers in the league. If greater than one-half of the non-involved managers veto a trade, the trade will be cancelled. The veto window is three days. All trades will be immediate. A veto of a trade will be prospective; if vetoed, the players traded will have their stats count for their teams that temporarily held them.
Trades may involve players and cash, but just as in MLB, players cannot be dealt only for cash. Trades may also involve other assets, such as, but not limited to, future draft picks, RFA rights, etc. Trades can include a "player to be named later" as long as that player has not accumulated any LDB stats between the trade and the player changing hands. As a general policy, trades are looked upon favorably, regardless of the types of assets involved. The full terms of a trade need not be fully disclosed to the league and may involve gentlemen's agreements and other conditions.
However, no trade may involve an agreement to temporarily hold or "rent" a player. Any trade that attempts to work around the ban on renting players is also prohibited. For example, a trade involving an agreement to later send back a player of similar value could be considered a workaround. Whether a trade constitutes a rental or an attempted workaround will be determined by a Rules Committee vote, if one is called for.
- ↑ The standard time zone for LDB is Eastern Standard Time.