17 January 2012

Kyle Hudson's Draft Excluded Status

In one of his posts, Roch Kubatko wrote the following:
Hudson can't be placed on waivers and outrighted to the minors before March because he's "draft excluded." The Orioles must trade or release him. They can re-sign him if he's released, but he can't play for them before May 15.
Roch apparently believes that surrounding mystery around quotation marked designations improves the beauty of sports journalism, I guess.

What does it mean to be draft excluded?

It is a player who begins the season as a minor leaguer who would be eligible for that December's Rule 5 draft and is added to the 40 man roster between the draft signing date (August 15th) and the deadline for the Rule 5 draft.  This player can be traded at any time during his draft excluded status, but cannot be designated for assignment until 20 days prior to opening day.

Therefore, Kyle Hudson, a draft excluded player by being added to the 40 man roster in September, must pass through waivers and given his outright release.  Apparently, there is a May 15th deadline as well that I did not know was in effect.  This means that Kyle Hudson will not be an Orioles in 2012.  He will sign with someone else assuming the May 15th date is correct.

What is the specific language?

MLR 6 (e)
DRAFT-EXCLUDED PLAYERS. A player who is excluded from selection in a Rule 5 Selection Meeting because the player was promoted to a Major League Reserve List after August 15 of the championship season preceding the selection meeting and remains on a Major League Reserve List through the conclusion of such selection meeting shall be referred to as a "draft-excluded player." A draft-excluded player shall not be directed to perform for, assigned to, or otherwise transferred to a Minor League Club unless the player first receives a trial with the player's Major League Club lasting until 20 days before the opening day of the following Major League season. See Rule 10(e)(6) (Restrictions on Waiver Requests) for rules concerning when waivers may be requested on a player who would become a draft-excluded player and Rule 10(d)(5)(B) (Consideration for Assignment of Player; Selected or Draft-Excluded Player) for rules concerning the waiver claim price for a draft-excluded player.
Rule 10(e)(6)
Assignment waivers may not be requested on the contract of a player who stands to become a draft-excluded player, as described in Rule 6(e), during the period beginning five days following the last day of the World Series and ending 25 days prior to the opening of the championship season of the year following the year the player became a draft-excluded player. If waivers are obtained, no assignment may be made pursuant to such waivers until 20 days prior to the opening of the championship season of said year.
I do not see anything about May 15th.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was something in the old CBA that if a team did not offer a player arbitration they could not resign him until May 15. That doesn't seem like the case now with the Joe Saunders signing for example.

Jon Shepherd said...

Correct, that part was removed in the last CBA. It could be that whoever Roch talked to was a little confused or there is some language wandering around somewhere in the CBA that I have yet to find.

The Oriole Way said...

This is an outright release issue, I think.

"A player on an MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) who is given his Outright Release during the period of time extending from September 1st up until Opening Day of the following season cannot be added back to the MLB 40-man roster of the club that released the player until May 15th, and a player on an MLB 40-man roster who is given his Outright Release during the period of time extending from Opening Day through August 31st cannot be added back to the MLB Active List of the club that released the player for at least 30 days."

http://www.thecubreporter.com/cubs-40-man-roster

Obviously, not sure how reliable that is (or if nullified by the new CBA), but this isn't the first time the issue has come up.