Minors/Majors contract - MLB Rules?

[the doctor]

anyone know much about how these work? I am having trouble finding a good explanation of the rules surrounding them. I'm curious because I saw a weird edge-case that happened in an OOTP online league, but that I assume has never happened in the MLB (for a number of reasons):

- Player signs a Minors/Majors contract before the Rule V draft that dictates he'll make $2 million if he makes the Active Roster.
- Player is not protected in the Rule V draft
- Player is selected by another team in the Rule V draft. Now, that player has effectively made the Active Roster by virtue of the rules surrounding how the player must be carried on the roster post-Rule V selection.

Does the player get the $2 million majors contract he signed with the original team, or does he get a league minimum contract, or is it some third option I haven't thought of?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by the doctor

- Player signs a Minors/Majors contract before the Rule V draft that dictates he'll make $2 million if he makes the Active Roster.
- Player is not protected in the Rule V draft
- Player is selected by another team in the Rule V draft. Now, that player has effectively made the Active Roster by virtue of the rules surrounding how the player must be carried on the roster post-Rule V selection.

The player isn't on the active roster until the start of the regular season. A club is required to give a Rule V selectee a trial period of 15 days during spring training, after which it can offer to return the player outright to his original club, and if that club doesn't want the player back, then outright assignment waivers can be requested. So it is quite possible for a Rule V drafted player to never make the active roster after having been selected.

[the doctor]

awesome, much appreciated!

mlb.com FAQ says "Once a player is selected, he is automatically assigned to his new organization's 40-man roster."

so, my mistake, that's the additional relevant part that's missing from my hypothetical: the contract vests if he is on the 25man OR the 40man (this is how the majors/minors contracts work in OOTP - do you know if that's consistent with the MLB rules around them as well? i have not been able to find much information about real majors/minors contracts.

also, can you link me to relevant section of the rules? i consider myself reasonably transaction-rule knowledgable, but i've not heard of this 15 day period before.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by the doctor

also, can you link me to relevant section of the rules? i consider myself reasonably transaction-rule knowledgable, but i've not heard of this 15 day period before.

Well, this is a lucky day!

Previously, the only edition of the complete Major League Rules was for 2008, which was posted to the now-defunct Business of Baseball web site. The rules around the Rule 5 have changed little since then, as far as I recall. I decided to do a little Google search, and guess what I found? The 2018 edition of the Major League Rules! I've been wanting to find those (or any from 2012 onwards, as the last two CBAs have also resulted in some changes to the MLR).

So, thanks for your prompting! This is lucky indeed, as the full MLR are very hard to find for non-baseball industry people as they are not distributed publicly. You can download a PDF of the rules from here. I suggest doing so right away, as I suspect this link was inadvertently made publicly available rather than requiring a registered sign-in. (I've downloaded my copy!)

[Le Grande Orange]

I poked around Internet Archive, and was able to find both the 2017 and 2015 editions of the Major League Rules as well. A spot check indicates little to no difference between the 2017 and 2018 versions. The 2015 version definitely has a few differences in the waiver and post-season roster rules (and perhaps in other sections). Links below for those interested in downloading these PDFs for themselves.

2015 Major League Rules
2017 Major League Rules