Keepers and Drafts
Keepers
LDB has several types of players who may be retained ("kept") from one season to the next. The Commissioner(s) will announce deadlines for teams to publicly declare their keepers for a given season.
Majors
In the off-season GMs may designate five players on their Majors rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (i.e., contract status of K1 or K2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, 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 become a restricted free agent.
Restricted Free Agents
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they become 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 may designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible. The HTH must also have accrued positive fantasy statistics on an active roster of an LDB team during the regular season after he was picked up on an MS contract for the final time in order to grant HTH status the following season.
The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars. However, RPs get one-year extensions for two million dollars, and catchers get one-year extensions for three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.
Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts allowed each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.
In addition, teams have the option of converting one HTH-eligible MS player into an RFA for the following Majors Draft. The designated HTH-to-RFA contract must be declared to the league by the keeper deadline. The resulting RFA rights are not tradable to another team.
Homegrown and Super-twos
Homegrown players are players drafted into AA (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the Majors keeper total. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:
| Homegrown Salary Structure | |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | $0.5 million |
| Year 2 | $1.0 million |
| Year 3 | $1.5 million |
| Year 4 | $4.0 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.
Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of the LDB season (after the final roster lock in 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) | $0.5 million | |
| Year 1 | $1.0 million | |
| Year 2 | $1.5 million | |
| Year 3 | $4.0 million | |
| Year 4 | $7.5 million | |
Teams 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(s).
Injured Keepers
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if: (1) a player is injured or (2) a player's injury or the extent of an injury is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.
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. At the start of each calendar year, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner(s), for the AA Draft occurring two calendar years later. Picks beyond those presently owned cannot be traded in any capacity or included as 'player to be named later' in a trade. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner(s) may award new picks at their discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.
To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.
The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season as the Commissioner(s) see fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, 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 order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.
Logistics and Requirements
Once a team is on the clock to draft an AA player and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.
If the draft is not complete by 10:00 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10:00 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million 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 Majors Draft 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 determined by the Commissioner(s).
At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order determined by the Commissioner(s). A nominating team will name a 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 team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.
Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
- $0.5 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 in which they are involved.
If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights will be afforded an opportunity to match the final bid once it is determined.
Teams may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can nominate a player for auction. However, if a team reaches the 26-player limit and subsequently drops or trades a player, that team may rejoin the Majors Draft.
Blind Auction Option
The Commissioner(s) may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles the Majors Draft, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.
Snake Draft
The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.
Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake 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. Players drafted as NGs during the auction must remain NGs cannot be converted to K1s prior to Opening Day, except for eligible conversions in lieu of acquiring post-auction K1s, as set out under External Transactions.
Rule V Draft
In order to dissuade teams 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, teams may poach such players from other teams' 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 the date of the Rule V Draft (birthday on draft day counts),
- Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
- Currently be on an MLB team's 26-man roster.
The Rule V draft will take place over the All-Star Break each season. 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. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team 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 then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the All-Star Game. The Commissioner(s) will conduct the Rule V Draft by means they determine.
Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and one half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints) does not count toward the one and one half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.
A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.
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 team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL 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 may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.