League Structure idea I need help!

[jrainor]

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a fictional/alternate-history OOTP universe and could use some advice from people who know the league setup tools better than I do.

The basic concept is this:

I start with a modern MLB save and sim forward to the end of the 2031 season. In my save, MLB has continued as usual, the A’s have moved to Las Vegas, and by 2031 the Las Vegas A’s have even reached the World Series. That becomes a major story point.

The idea is that after years of MLB refusing to expand, despite clear demand from cities like Portland, Nashville, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, Sacramento, Oklahoma City, etc., the top level of the minor leagues finally breaks away.

The International League and Pacific Coast League decide they are no longer just developmental leagues. They already have 30 clubs, stadiums, local fan bases, ownership groups, media markets, and decades of baseball history. So instead of waiting for MLB expansion, they secede from the affiliated minor league structure and reorganize as a new major-league rival.

The new umbrella league would be called something like:

Federal Baseball League
or
United Federal Baseball

Taglines/lore ideas:

“Not Expansion. Elevation.”
“The League They Couldn’t Kill.”
“Thirty Cities. One Rebellion.”
“Baseball Belongs Beyond the Thirty.”

The historical/lore explanation is that MLB argues it owns the player contracts, but the breakaway leagues argue that their assignment agreements and working conditions have been disrupted because the IL/PCL are no longer affiliated leagues. This leads to a messy winter legal battle and eventually a one-time settlement.

The settlement creates what I’m calling the:

Secession Draft

The idea would be that MLB clubs protect their 40-man rosters and a limited number of non-40-man prospects. A lot of AAA players, blocked prospects, minor league free agents, and upper-minor veterans then become available to the new FBL through some kind of free agent/inaugural draft mechanism. The FBL has major money behind it, so it is not a low-level indy league. It is a true rival trying to buy legitimacy quickly.

At the same time, MLB reacts by dramatically restructuring its player development system. Since the IL and PCL have left, and so many upper-minor players have jumped or become free agents, MLB contracts the minor league system. I’m strongly considering dialing MLB back to something like AAA and AA only, or maybe even rebuilding AAA as a smaller MLB-controlled reserve league.

What I’m trying to figure out is how best to execute this inside OOTP.

Specific questions:

Can I take the existing International League and Pacific Coast League and change them to major league level leagues?
Ideally, I would like to preserve as much of the existing teams/history/structure as possible instead of deleting them and creating a brand-new fictional league from scratch.
What is the best way to separate the IL/PCL teams from MLB affiliations?
Is there a clean way to remove their parent club relationships and make them independent major league clubs?
How should I handle player movement?
I want the new league to be populated partly by existing AAA players, minor league free agents, MLB free agents, and maybe some generated players if needed. Is there a good way to release a large group of AAA players into the free agent pool or run some kind of inaugural/free agent draft?
Can OOTP handle an inaugural draft for an existing group of teams after changing league level?
Or would I need to create a new league and move/rename teams manually?
What happens to MLB organizations if I remove or repurpose their AAA affiliates?
Is there anything I need to watch out for to avoid breaking player development, rosters, schedules, or AI behavior?
Would it be better mechanically to create a brand-new 30-team major league, then manually copy over the IL/PCL team names/markets/logos?
Lore-wise, it is a secession, but I’m open to doing it in the cleanest mechanical way if OOTP handles that better.
What financial/reputation settings would make sense?
I want the FBL to have real money and be able to compete for players, but I don’t want it to instantly destroy MLB. My thought is MLB has more prestige/history, while FBL has aggressive money and opportunity.
Any advice on minor league contraction?
If I trim MLB down to AAA/AA only, or AA only plus reserve rosters, what settings should I adjust so the universe remains stable?

My goal is to eventually share this as a full fictional/alternate-history setup with the OOTP community. I’m trying to create a save where 2032 becomes a true baseball rupture: not simple expansion, but a labor/ownership/player-development crisis where the old AAA structure elevates itself into a rival major league.

Any advice on the best in-game path to build this would be hugely appreciated. I’m especially interested in avoiding obvious save-breaking mistakes before I start moving leagues around.

Thanks in advance.

[Pelican]

Wow, an ambitious project. And lots of questions. I can help with some.

First, for your "Secession Draft", allowing MLB teams to keep their entire 40-man roster plus "a limited number of...prospects" would not leave you with much talent. That's 1200 guys on the rosters, plus the prospects. The active roster [26] plus the best fourteen (at least) prospects. Your league would be left with the worst AAA and AA players from each organization. You might as well call it the Dregs League.

So I would pare way down the list of players MLB teams can protect. I would not go higher than the 26-man active roster. That would still leave your teams with marginal players. If you are saying the former IL and PCL teams would keep their existing rosters (see below), well at best you would have a AAA-level new league.

When I do an expansion draft currently, I only allow MLB teams to protect twelve guys, plus any players with less than three years MLB service (prospects, rookies). Three years is the default OOTP setting. You could make it two or even one year. But even with the 12/3 approach, MLB teams would be able to keep most of their active rosters (twelve veterans, and fourteen guys with less than three years service), and all of their prospects. Not sure that meets your goal for your draft.

On to your questions.

-IL/PCL/League Settings/League & Teams/League Level [change to "major league"]
-IL/PCL/League Settings/League & Teams [change each team's affiliation to "none"]
-When you remove the MLB affiliations, the AAA players should remain with their teams. No idea what happens to the rare guy [Colt Emerson, until Tuesday] who is in the minors with a long-term MLB contract.
-You could, in the alternative, take all of those existing players on the AAA rosters and make them free agents. League Settings/Functions/Clear Rosters. Their MLB organizations lose them, and your teams can draft them.
-League News/League Events [You can add a draft through the drop-down menu for Custom Events. Set the date for maybe a month in the future, in the off-season.]
-My worry would be that MLB teams (through their AI GM's) would start signing the new AAA free agents. So as a safeguard, under League Settings put all MLB teams under user control (not AI). You can switch it back, once your draft is done.
-I would expect that your financial settings - resources - would have to approximate MLB, or you will begin losing players. One critical setting - if you use it - is what MLB teams pay to purchase your players. I would set that figure very high or toggle it off. You can allow trades with MLB teams or not. Your teams will need big money to retain and acquire MLB free agents. I don't know how small markets and modest stadiums will facilitate that.
-Contracting the minor leagues would create lots of low-level free agents who would presumably not develop. Not good. For MLB, I would suggest shifting current AA leagues to AAA, high-A to AA, and low-A to A.
-Your thirty new MLB-level teams will need minor league systems, unless you want to use Reserve Rosters (you don't, because the players would not develop, because they were not playing). Good luck on finding ninety teams for AAA, AA, and A, plus developmental leagues. I hope you are good on geography.
-You could as an easier but less realistic alternative make all current minor leaguers free agents - their leagues would be independent. MLB teams including your new league would presumably scout and make offers, or better yet include all these guys in the annual amateur draft. More like the NFL and NBA, in a way. I have not done this, but others have, and may have ideas.

Good luck with this. It can be done, but you will be dancing around the "doctrine of unintended consequences". [One small example is that established teams will leave overpriced free agents unprotected in the draft. Do you really want to draft Kris Bryant or Nick Castellanos and pay the remaining years on that salary?]

The closest I have come to this is my 1961 sim with the Continental League as the third major, instead of MLB expansion. (It almost happened.) It was pretty chaotic having eight new MLB teams and the original sixteen.