Draft/FA eligibility

Rangers · Post by **Rangers** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:29 pm

In regard to this rule:

...If the player is a Cuban defector or is from another professional league such as Japan, Korea or Mexico and does not sign a contract with an MLB team by opening day (Opening Day of the 2007 season in the example above). If the does not fall under one of these two categories, he must have signed a contract with an MLB team prior to January first of that year (prior to January 1st of 2007 in the example above).

exco has decided to essentially leave the Cuban defector language as it is in the league rules. This means that any player who defects from Cuba, regardless of age, will fall under this portion of the rule.

For example, if a 17 year old Cuban player defects and subsequently signs with a major league team before opening day of 2010, the team that drafts him will retain his rights. If he is not drafted, he will be eiligble to be signed immediately after he is signed by an MLB club up to opening day and can be signed at any time thereafter.

Chapman and Arguelles obviously fall into this category.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:38 pm

I'm generally all for keeping the rules as they are, but in this case I disagree. The cutoff should be set to January 1 for all players with the draft starting January 1.

Giants · Post by **Giants** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:06 pm

That's pretty stupid, especially in this climate. When a Cuban of any significance defects he's going to have to sign eventually, since he doesn't have a chance to go back. As long as a guy has made his intention clear by this point in the year, meaning he'll be declared eligible for free agency, he's going to get signed. If the Red Sox and Yankees get into a game of chicken with Aroldis Chapman and he ultimately doesn't sign until mid January that means he shouldn't be eligible for this draft?

Mets · Post by **Mets** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:18 pm

so if he doesn't sign until mid May, does he go on waivers, or does whichever GM that's sitting by his computer when it happens get him?

Rangers · Post by **Rangers** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:03 pm

Mets wrote:so if he doesn't sign until mid May, does he go on waivers, or does whichever GM that's sitting by his computer when it happens get him?

If he signs after opening day, he's not eligible to be signed until the next year. However, it would be the case between the end of the draft and opening day. I don't know any other way to interpret it.

Rangers · Post by **Rangers** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:08 pm

Padres wrote:I'm generally all for keeping the rules as they are, but in this case I disagree. The cutoff should be set to January 1 for all players with the draft starting January 1.

I tend to agree. I preferred that alternative as well, was just outvoted. But I did think that the most important thing was that we were all at least clear on the rule, given the changing dynamic with young Cubans.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:50 am

Tigers wrote:
Mets wrote:so if he doesn't sign until mid May, does he go on waivers, or does whichever GM that's sitting by his computer when it happens get him?
If he signs after opening day, he's not eligible to be signed until the next year. However, it would be the case between the end of the draft and opening day. I don't know any other way to interpret it.

he would go into the draft for the next season, that's how it has always been handled in the past, i.e. Maels "Fucking" Rodriguez

And yes, if a guy doesn't sign until january, then he goes into the enxt years draft. Why is that such a bad thing? That's how the rule is applied to Dominicans and others, the rule ought to be uniform. So a guy might sit out a season, big deal. By moving the draft date to January 1, cutoff day, the risk of drafting a guy who might not sign by Opening Day is completely eliminated.

Mets · Post by **Mets** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:38 pm

There's two school's of thought on this:

1) draft a guy who hasn't signed and hope he does by opening day, or lose your rights, and he reenters the following years draft pool.

2) set a cut off that anyone who hasn't signed by the beginning of the draft is ineligible to be drafted.

I'd like to see the rules phrased a little more simply to avoid these discussions.

Giants · Post by **Giants** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:38 am

Padres wrote:
Tigers wrote:
Mets wrote:so if he doesn't sign until mid May, does he go on waivers, or does whichever GM that's sitting by his computer when it happens get him?
If he signs after opening day, he's not eligible to be signed until the next year. However, it would be the case between the end of the draft and opening day. I don't know any other way to interpret it.
he would go into the draft for the next season, that's how it has always been handled in the past, i.e. Maels "Fucking" Rodriguez

And yes, if a guy doesn't sign until january, then he goes into the enxt years draft. Why is that such a bad thing? That's how the rule is applied to Dominicans and others, the rule ought to be uniform. So a guy might sit out a season, big deal. By moving the draft date to January 1, cutoff day, the risk of drafting a guy who might not sign by Opening Day is completely eliminated.

This rule is older than the rule about the Dominicans, who used to be free reign the moment they were signed. If anything we should be applying this Opening Day rule to the Dominicans rather than the other way. The January thing is mostly an issue i for the Japanese relievers who someone could take a flier on in the 3rd or 4th round that will come in and get projections so they can be used this year.