Keepers and Drafts
Keepers
Majors and AAA Players
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their Majors and AAA rosters as keepers. Only players 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 restricted 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 Majors Draft. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. 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 contract 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. The HTH must also be on an active roster and accrue positive statistics.[1]
Homegrown and Super-twos
Homegrown players are players drafted into AA (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the Majors/AAA keeper total. After AA players' 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 homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.
GMs may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:
| Super-two Salary Structure | |
|---|---|
| Year 0 (promotion year) | $0.4 million |
| Year 1 | $0.6 million |
| Year 2 | $1.8 million |
| Year 3 | $3.6 million |
| Year 4 | $3.6 million |
GMs may 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 notice to the Commissioner.
New Super-Two SALARY STRUCTURE - Starting with super-two promotions in 2014
| Super-Two Salary Structure | |
|---|---|
| Year 0 | $0.4 million |
| Year 1 | $0.6 million |
| Year 2 | $1.2 million |
| Year 3 | $3.6 million |
| Year 4 | $7.2 million |
AA Draft
The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's AA Roster besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.[2]
To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be MLB rookie-eligible (i.e., less than 131 AB or 50 IP, not counting September call-up experience).
The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit. The AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.
AA Draft Pick Timing (New in 2013):
If an owner/GM is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), he will be hit with a $2M fine, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. He may jump back in and pick at any time. An owner/GM may assign another owner/GM to make the pick on his behalf.
If the draft is not complete by 10 PM Eastern Time on the Friday prior to the auction the 3 GMs/owners who have caused the longest delay between picks (counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM eastern time) will each be fined $1M for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.
Majors Draft
After the AA Draft, LDB will draft Majors players. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.
At the draft, GMs will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating GM will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The GM that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.
Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
- $0.4 million - $1 million: $0.2 million
- $1 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
- More than $9.5 million: $1 million
In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.
If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.
GMs may draft until: (1) they have Majors roster space, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.
AAA Draft
The final component of a season's draft is the AAA Draft. Every AAA player chosen in the AAA draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three AAA draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See External Transactions for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts.
Rule V Draft[3]
In order to dissuade GMs from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, GMs may poach such players from other GMs farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
- Currently be in LDB AA
- Not be a team's designated protected player
- Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts)
- Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career
The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season beginning in 2012. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a GM passes, the GM may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).
Teams drafting a player by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following 1.5 seasons. Time on the LDB disabled list will not count toward the 1.5 seasons, although owners may still place them on the disabled list. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.
Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.
If a GM is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the DL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.
Teams will not be able to change their protected player without promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers. Teams cannot change their protected player once the draft begins.