IBC

Tullar is asking we look at the way we treat former MLB players who go to a foreign league and whether or not they should be subjected to the draft.

I know it's been a while since we talked about the rule change making former MLB players have to be redrafted again after coming back into MLB, but I was wondering if there had been any progress toward tossing it out for being lazy and targeted?

I do think it's something we should consider looking at. I think it's fairly silly for a player to have to go through the draft process multiple times.

A better idea is probably something between ZiPS $ and Waivers, but I'm not totally sure what the answer is.

Using Thames (Giants) and Kelly (Red Sox) as relatively recent precedents we just allowed teams to sign such players ...

We did something on this a few years ago. I think it was via zips. If someone can try to dig that up, it would help. But we've discussed this due to Thames, Mikolas, etc

From last year:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8089&p=70979&hilit=Thames#p70979

It's in the rules:

ZiPS budgets will also be the tool to acquire players who leave the US to play elsewhere and return to an MLB team. These players are distinct from foreign players eligible for the draft (see IX Drafts). The same process described above in VII (2) will apply to foreign free agents. These foreign free agents will only be eligible for signing through the ZiPS bidding process in the offseason.

I favor this.

The only gap that jumps out at me - and let me know if I'm missing it having already been addressed - is the unusual instance where a guy takes this path but still doesn't get a projection. I hate to add a bunch of language for something that figures to almost always be minor and infrequent and the couple of solutions that come to mind seem overcomplicated.

Rangers wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:39 pm I favor this.

The only gap that jumps out at me - and let me know if I'm missing it having already been addressed - is the unusual instance where a guy takes this path but still doesn't get a projection. I hate to add a bunch of language for something that figures to almost always be minor and infrequent and the couple of solutions that come to mind seem overcomplicated.

No, you're right. That is a loophole. We don't really have a way to address that currently unless we force teams to wait a year until the next season's projections come out, which isn't reasonable. I guess we could put a player on regular waivers, but that just means one team has a chance, really. Worth a discussion.

My other thought was that we just nullify the signing if the player gets a projection. Just kind of messy and theoretically could be abused.