Hidden players and the "Incaviglia Rule"

[Corsairs]

An owner in our league has negotiated a trade that involves a hidden player, Antonio Martinez, who was uncovered through international scouting. Martinez was signed on August 25, 2008. It's currently June 7, 2009 (we've just concluded our amateur draft today). Our league uses the "Incaviglia Rule" by virtue of leaving the "Allow trading of recently drafted players" checkbox unchecked.

When I set up the trade I receive this message: "A. Martinez cannot be traded since he was drafted less than a year ago!"

So I've got a couple questions about this. First, Martinez was never drafted. My understanding was that the "Incaviglia Rule" only protected recent draftees, not international signings.

Second, I see in the manual that it says: "If [the "Allow trading of recently drafted players checkbox] is unchecked, then players with less than a full year of pro service who were recently drafted cannot be traded." Interesting; that seems to indicate that it's not just recently drafted players but any player with less than 1 year of pro service. However, Martinez is listed as having 1 year and 63 days of pro service under his "Contract & Status" tab. Does he not qualify as having a full year of pro service until the end of the season in which he hits the 1-year mark? And if that's the case, how would a person be able to tell whether or not a young player qualifies to be traded without actually setting up the trade in-game (something non-commissioners can't do in online leagues)?

[Corsairs]

Little bump. Anyone have an idea on this? I'm holding up the completed trade pending a response here from someone in the know.

[Bluenoser]

Did you post this in the Tech Support forum? My take is - looks like a bug. I can't see any reason why the trade shouldn't be allowed.

[Corsairs]

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of it that way. I figured there must be some legit reason OOTP was holding the trade up. Alright, I'll post over there and see what the tech crew has to say.

[Corsairs]

Just to put a bow on this, Nutlaw confirmed this is expected behavior. As the manual states, it's not just recent draftees that are precluded from being traded for a year; any player with less than one full pro year of service is also covered. OOTP only checks the service time of players at the start of each season, so even if a player gains enough service time to be eligible for trade during the season the game will prevent him from being traded until the season ends. Not the most intuitive behavior, but at least it can be planned around if you know how it works.

[endgame]

For the record, a BZ entry already exists to have this feature's function revisited. In part, for the reasons you've shared.