Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad K
I had wondered about that for a long time as devising a rule that appeared to be due to concern for the players seemed so out of character.
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So true! Back when the Rule 5 draft was instituted, the minors were almost entirely separate from the big leagues, so if major-league team wanted a minor-league player, it would have to arrange some kind of deal with the minor-league team. The owners figured it was far easier just to pass a rule that allowed them to buy the players at a set price - which was usually far below what the player would get on the open market.
And why, you might ask, would the minor leagues permit that kind of thievery? Well, if they didn't, the majors would declare them to be outlaws and then
none of their player contracts would be safe from the predatory clutches of the MLB. So it was a lot like a protection racket. In fact, much of the early history of baseball resembles nothing so much as an organized-crime family.