I was super happy when this site started, and it hasn't disappointed.
Someone asked me today how long until minor league players needed to be added to the 40-man roster.
Every time I think I know it, I'm wrong. So, smart people, help?
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I was super happy when this site started, and it hasn't disappointed.
Someone asked me today how long until minor league players needed to be added to the 40-man roster.
Every time I think I know it, I'm wrong. So, smart people, help?
A player is usually added if it looks like they may get taken in the Rule 5 draft, five years of play after age 18 or four years if signed after age 19. They don't need to be added. But can be added after their 6th year in the minors, when they would be eligible to become a free agent and sign with anyone they please. Once on the 40-man, they can be optioned out to the minors for three seasons, before having to stick with the team. Then it becomes arbitration, free agency and the ilk. If a player on the 40-man is actually removed from the 40-man, he can be claimed by another team that has to place them on their 40-man, and keep the cycle going if they wish to release the player. If he isn't claimed by anyone, he can go back to the team's minor league. So, if you sign a player at 18, h has five years before he needs to be added to the roster. Then you can control his up/down for four more years while they gather service time and all. But every year many players become 5-year free agents (used to be 5). Twins signed a whole mess of them, plus got a couple that were on 40-man rosters (Gray, Maloney, Mastro) that they have to keep, but could lose. Sometimes players come off injuries, which was why the Twins were able to send out Slama and Bromberg last fall...no one claimed them. A couple of years back, the Twins demoted Glen Perkins. Then they removed him from the 40-man and NO ONE claimed him. But he made it back to the roster. If you make the 49-man, you pretty much WILL PLAY ion the majors. Exceptions...always that A or AA guy that is protected from the Rule 5 than never really pans out (de los Santos a few years ago, Arcia maybe this year). When players are added to the 40-man in the Fall, they have to stay on thru the end of spring training...you can't protect them, then send them right back to the minors. You can if you add them in September or during the season. A few players stay on the 40-man thru the winter meetings (like a Butera, for example) so you have an option to replace them if someone becomes available.
Cool, so is it Calendar years? Or years on a team?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosterman
Seasons.
So most college players draft last year in 2011 will get 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 to make an impression and would have to be added in advance of the 2014 Rule V draft.
If the Twins draft Buxton this year, he'd get five years 2012-16 and would have to be added in 2016. College guys would be 2015.
Free agency works a little different in terms of time. You hear the term "six-year free agent", but Monday's draftees will not accumulate a full year this year, so they won't be minor league free agents for seven off-seasons, or 2018. If any of these players are added to the big-league roster before then, they would be under team control until they have six years of major league experience.
So having played for rookie leagues the past couple years, is Max Kepler is already on year 3 of 5?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy Nygaard
One thing also to add to Rosterman's excellent summary. Being removed from the 40-man and sent to the minors ("outrighted") can only be done to a player against his will once during a career. If a player on the 40-man has already been outrighted once, and he does not give consent to go to the minors again, he can ask to be traded or released and become a free agent.
Kepler's on the same schedule as the guys that were drafted out of high school in 2009 (the summer he signed). Rule V eligible following the 2013 season and a six-year free agent (if he's not on a 40-man) after the 2016 season.
Since most foreign players sign at 16, they need to be added to the 40-man at a younger age than players drafted in similar seasons. That's why, Oswaldo Arcia for example, is on an optional assignment at a lower level than the rest of the guys that were added to the 40-man last November and why guys like Estarlin DeLosSantos and Deibinson Romero were added when they were so young.
The flip side is that players like Kepler may also be in the lowliest of minors, and moreso for position players than pitchers, you can usually sneak them by. Like Arcia, eally, was anyone going to Rule 5 him and keep him all year in the majors? Am I right when I speak of the Minor League part of the Rule 5 draft...you can draft a longtime player from AA or A ball, but have to play them at a comparable league or above? This year, the Twins drafted Marty Popham in the minor league portion and lost Shooter Huint. These guys never seem to be returned.
Excellent reference & discussion. Thanks guys.
Yes, when someone can hit like Arcia, someone would have likely taken him and stashed him on their roster. For sure, he would have been lost.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosterman
As for the minor league Rule 5, the rules are the same. You put 40 on the major league roster. You put 40 (I believe) on the AAA roster. The critera is the same as mentioned above, just one year sooner. Likewise with the AA portion. And yes, the players do not need to be returned to the original team. No, they do not have to play at AA or AAA. Guys that the Twins have lost in the minor league Rule 5 have been guys (typically) that have pitched in E-Town or Beloit the year before. Guys like Jean Mijares and Eliecer Cardenas. The following seasons, they were back in Low A. They don't have to put them anywhere in particular. In fact, I don't think that Hunt has pitched at all yet this year. The Twins try to fill spots in the organizatin that are empty. They needed a starter this year for Ft. Myers and they got Marty Popham. Several years ago, they took Brian Buscher and threw him in AA because they had a need at 3B for that year. He's a rare exception of a minor league Rule 5 guy who actually goes to AA or AAA, much less actually gets to the big leagues. There are examples though.
I think what is confusing about the minor league portion of the rule 5 draft is that it does seem to operate differently than the major league portion. In the major league portion, if you take a player, they don't have to just stay on the 40-man of the new club, they have to stay on the 25-man of the new club or get offered back. The corresponding analogy in the AAA portion would be if you take a player AA or lower, they should have to stay on the AAA active (25-man) roster the whole season, not just the reserve roster (which, I believe, can hold 38 names). Similarly, in the AA portion, you would think they had to stay on the AA active (25-man) roster, not just the reserve (37 man). If you can take a player in the minor league phase and just stick them on the reserve roster, it does operate differently than the major league phase.