Some Rule 5 Returnees Must Be Placed on Active Roster

hefalumps · 01-04-2022, 03:54 PM

For whatever reason, I lost a lot of players in the Rule 5 draft. One of them was returned to me on the day before the regular season started. I was able to assign him directly from DFA to one of my minor league teams without issue.

A few days into the season, another one got returned to me. He spent a couple of days with the other team's big league club so got some ML experience this season before he was returned. He also had prior big league experience and had been signed to a minor league contract some years ago from another team that let him go. When I tried to assign him directly from DFA to one of my minor league teams, I was told he had to be on the active roster. I checked and he still had just a minor league contract and his Rule 5 checkbox in the player editor was empty.

I checked to see if any other teams' Rule 5 players had been returned, and there was one other that returned on opening day, so the regular season had started but the player had not accrued any ML service time. That player was assigned straight to the minors by the team that received him.

So why was my second player unable to go straight to the minors? I know I could have tried to pass him through waivers, but to my knowledge I shouldn't have to do that. Am I misunderstanding the rule or is this a bug?

Thanks!

01-04-2022, 03:54 PM	#1
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,371	Some Rule 5 Returnees Must Be Placed on Active Roster For whatever reason, I lost a lot of players in the Rule 5 draft. One of them was returned to me on the day before the regular season started. I was able to assign him directly from DFA to one of my minor league teams without issue. A few days into the season, another one got returned to me. He spent a couple of days with the other team's big league club so got some ML experience this season before he was returned. He also had prior big league experience and had been signed to a minor league contract some years ago from another team that let him go. When I tried to assign him directly from DFA to one of my minor league teams, I was told he had to be on the active roster. I checked and he still had just a minor league contract and his Rule 5 checkbox in the player editor was empty. I checked to see if any other teams' Rule 5 players had been returned, and there was one other that returned on opening day, so the regular season had started but the player had not accrued any ML service time. That player was assigned straight to the minors by the team that received him. So why was my second player unable to go straight to the minors? I know I could have tried to pass him through waivers, but to my knowledge I shouldn't have to do that. Am I misunderstanding the rule or is this a bug? Thanks! Last edited by hefalumps; 01-04-2022 at 03:55 PM.