When does the clock start running?

[rgenius25]

So I wanted to understand exactly how call-ups work from AAA - to the major leagues. I have an injured starter and need to replace him. So my question is what do I do.

From my perspective I have a few options:

1. Play shorthanded
2. Bring up a player temporarily from the minors to replace him

The second options brings up a few questions.

1) Understanding we have a salary cap - if you bring up a potential star player that may be 1-2 years away from making the majors for 4-5 weeks - do you pay the full season at 400K for him and lose valuable service time?
2) Does his playing time count - meaning that if we know that arbitration is 3 years away - provided he is not a super 2 - does the clock start against him even though he has a short stint
3) Does it make sense to just hold a superstar back and bring up a marginal player who you can release.

As I understand it now - unless someone is considered a super 2 - That player can play for the minimum 400K for 3 full years. In the fourth year they will be eligible for arbitration.
So if the player had service time in year 1 - does the the 5 weeks count as a true 5 weeks - and its at the end of the third year that he is arbitration eligible (so in reality its 3 years and 5 weeks) or does the 5 weeks count as a full year (so he becomes eligible after 2 full years).

I would prefer to live without him for 4 weeks - then give up a season for one of my young potential superstars. Also - would it matter if the player was on the 40 man roster or not?

Interested in your thoughts...

[TribeFanInNC]

1) Yes, you will have to pay the player a $400,000 salary for the rest of the year, even if you demote him again. Unfortunately OOTP doesn't model two-way contracts as they exist in real baseball.
2)Yes, the 'clock' starts when you bring him up. So any time he spends on the active roster counts toward time to get to arbitration and eventual free agency. Though when if send him back down, his time will not count toward this - only when the player is on the active roster. Also, once he is on the 40-man roster, you basically only have three seasons to get him ready to stay on the active roster before he runs out of options. This is usually the biggest problem with calling guys up too early.
3)Yes. If he isn't ready, calling him up may damage his development.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by TribeFanInNC

3)Yes. If he isn't ready, calling him up may damage his development.

Thank you for pointing this out. I think this is a very realistic feature. There was a pretty long and acrimonious debate a couple of years ago about whether this should be modeled.

[rgenius25]

Ok thanks for the answers - but just to clarify on the arbitration:

As I understand it now - unless someone is considered a super 2 - That player can play for the minimum 400K for 3 full years. In the fourth year they will be eligible for arbitration.
So if the player had service time in year 1 - say a short stint in the majors as an injury replacement - does this count as a full year.

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

If its scenario B it makes sense to not bring up a superstar as he will be eligible for the arbitration after really only 2 seasons.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

Ok thanks for the answers - but just to clarify on the arbitration:

As I understand it now - unless someone is considered a super 2 - That player can play for the minimum 400K for 3 full years. In the fourth year they will be eligible for arbitration.
So if the player had service time in year 1 - say a short stint in the majors as an injury replacement - does this count as a full year.

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

If its scenario B it makes sense to not bring up a superstar as he will be eligible for the arbitration after really only 2 seasons.

If you have a superstar that might help you win, why would you not use them in the majors?

[rgenius25]

what i mean to say - he is not currently a superstar but has the potential. I would prefer to leave someone with 2--3 stars with 4-5 star potential ( in the minors than have him develop in the majors and lose contract time.

[TribeFanInNC]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

...So if the player had service time in year 1 - say a short stint in the majors as an injury replacement - does this count as a full year...

Not a full year. In OOTP (like real life), it counts days on active roster to determine arbitration and free agency. So if he spends 30 days up in the majors, then it counts as 30 days of the 3x172 days he needs to be arbitration eligible.

Like I said above, maybe the greater issue is the option years. A player gets three years to be optioned back and forth to the minors without clearing waivers. In that case, this short stint would be his first of three seasons he could be optioned back without clearing waivers.

[rgenius25]

Sorry...

Assuming i have him in the majors for 30 days - and then put him back in the minors the rest of the year

I am still not getting it:

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

[robc]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

Sorry...

Assuming i have him in the majors for 30 days - and then put him back in the minors the rest of the year

I am still not getting it:

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

Perhaps the rgenius25 name is a bit overstated?

I'm just kidding, I couldn't resist. I don't understand how this works either. I really need to reread the manual as it has been a while. This was a good question to bring up.

[rgenius25]

see i am clearly not a genius

[robc]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

see i am clearly not a genius

Me neither

[Flying Dutchmen]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

Sorry...

Assuming i have him in the majors for 30 days - and then put him back in the minors the rest of the year

I am still not getting it:

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

A player enters arbitration the first year they:

A) either pass 3 years active roster time
or
B) fall into the top 17% of active roster time of those with 2 years of service

Given this, it's highly unlikely 30 days would make the player fall into category B. Therefore Scenario A would be the case. This is why real MLB teams try to hold back top prospects to avoid falling into the Super 2 category.

[TribeFanInNC]

Yep, what Dutchman said. You would likely still be working under scenario A after 30 days.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Flying Dutchmen

A player enters arbitration the first year they:

A) either pass 3 years active roster time
or
B) fall into the top 17% of active roster time of those with 2 years of service.

There's an added caveat in regards to (b) in the real-world rules: the player must have had at least 86 days of service time in the season just concluded in order to be eligible for Super-2 status. OOTP does not model this however.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by rgenius25

Sorry...

Assuming i have him in the majors for 30 days - and then put him back in the minors the rest of the year

I am still not getting it:

Which arbitration scenario would be correct:

Scenario A - Player is arbitration eligible after 3 Full years and part of a year
Scenario B - Players is arbitration after 2 years - and part of the year.

Scenario A, the only way scenario B will happen is if he is a Super. Like Mr. Incredible or Elastigirl or Dash or Jack Jack.
So if your guy will someday morph into GazerBeam then leave him in the minors.
If he is a mere mortal like, Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb, then bringing him up for a short run only matters if you project him to be on your active roster before the Rule V Draft catches up to him. That is what the option years posts were about.
Good luck,
LP