2024 League Rules

Basics:
• 14 Team League - Top six teams make the playoffs with the top two seeds earning a bye.
• Head to Head Points
• 26 Man MLB Roster
• 25 Man MiLB Roster
• 6 IL spots
• All fourteen teams are in one division
• Team Salary Cap is $140,000,000.

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Scoring:
• H – 1 Point
• Single – 1 Point
• Double – 2 Points
• Triple – 3 Points
• HR – 4 Points
• RBI – 1 Point
• Run – 1 Point
• SB – 1 Point
• BB – 1 Point
• HPB – 1 Point

• IP: 3 Points
• ER: -1 Point
• Win: 5 Points
• Quality Start: 5 Points
• Loss: -5 Points
• Save: 5 Points
• K: 1 Point
• Hit & Walk Allowed: -0.5 points each
• Hold: 3 Points

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Team Rosters:
• 1 C
• 1 1B
• 1 2B
• 1 3B
• 1 SS
• 3 OF
• 2 UTIL
• 5 SP
• 4 RP
• 7 Bench
• 25 Minor League

Weekly/Matchup Rules:

Weekly matchup tie-breaker: Total season points

Playoff Brackets:
Championship Bracket:
Week 1: Tm1 & Tm2 BYE; Gm1: Tm3 v. Tm6, G2: Tm4 v. Tm5
Week 2: Gm3: Tm1 v. Win(Gm2), Gm4: Tm2 v. Win(Gm1); Gm5: Lose(Gm1) v. Lose(Gm2)*
Week 3: Championship: Win(Gm3) v. Win(Gm4), Runner-Ups: Lose(Gm3) v. Lose(Gm4), *Gm5 lasts two weeks, Lose(Gm1) v. Lose(Gm2)

Consolation Bracket: All eight teams in the Consolation Bracket have a chance to win out over three weeks and claim the #1 MiLB draft slot.
Week 1: Gm1: Tm7 v. Tm14, Gm2: Tm10 v. Tm11, Gm3: Tm9 v. Tm12, Gm4: Tm8 v. Tm13
Week 2: Gm5: Win(Gm1) v. Win(Gm2), Gm6: Win(Gm3) v. Win(Gm4), Gm7: Lose(Gm1) v. Lose(Gm2), Gm8: Lose(Gm3) v. Lose(Gm4)
Week 3: Ohtani Bowl- First Pick: Win(Gm5) v. Win(Gm6), Runner-Ups: Lose(Gm5) v. Lose(Gm6), Gm9: Win(Gm7) v. Win(Gm8), Gm10: Lose(Gm7) v. Lose(Gm8)

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MLB Contracts/Transactions:

General:
Each team will have available to them 26 total contracts.
MLB player contracts can be 1-5 years in length, with limits on the number of 3-5 year contracts:
3-5 year contracts: 15 contract limit
1-2 year contracts: no limit
*Teams are allowed to exceed 15 players on 3-5 year contracts for the duration of the yearly Graduation Period at the end of each MLB Season (RFA Nominations and MiLB Promotions Week/s) to give teams time to make trades/cuts after the end of the trade lockdown and the promotion of MiLB prospects to your MLB Team.

Teams may utilize the IL to open roster space on Opening Day. At the conclusion of the season, all players must be activated from the IL regardless of their injury status for the offseason and beyond.

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Adding a Player:
All MLB free agents who are not rostered can be put up for bidding in the “2024 Free Agents” board on the forum. Create a thread titled with the player’s name and a starting bid in the post.

All managers can bid on MLB free agents with their available funds. The minimum starting bid is 1-5 year/s at $521,000. The minimum bid increase is $50,000. Bidding closes 24 hours after the last bid is made.

A player is won and can be added to the winning team after the latest bid stands unbeaten for 24 hours. If the last bid is made at 6:28 pm on 04-01-2024, the player can be added to the winning team at 6:28 pm on 04-02-2024.

Bids may not be retracted unless they are invalid, in which case they will be handled by a League Manager. Deleting bids is not permitted.

Editing Bids:
Editing bids within the 23 hours and 59 minutes before a bid is considered final is permitted so long as the salary cap amount is not changed, and no other alteration is made that would make the bid invalid.

Examples:
1) A manager may change a bid on a player from 2 years/$3,000,000 to 3 years/$3,000,000, but not from 'X' years/$2,000,000 to 'X' years/$1,500,000.
2) A manager may change a drop attached to a starting or new bid to accommodate their Injured List or to comply with the 3-5 year contract limit.

The starting Restricted Free Agent bid is an exception to this rule. The initial 1 year, $15,700,000 may only increase in length via the creation of a new bid. This applies to all owners, including the owner of the RFA.

What is a valid bid?
A valid bid is:
1) A starting bid of at least $521,000 per year on an available MLB free agent (300 ABs, 100.0/50.0 IP) for a length of at least one and no more than five years.
2) A new bid on an existing MLB free agent that was made within 23 hours and 59 minutes of the most recent valid bid, and is at least $50,000 per year more than the most recent valid bid, for a length of at least one, and no more than five years.

What can make a bid invalid?
A bid is considered invalid if:
1) It is made more than 24 hours later than the most recent valid bid.
2) It is for an amount less than $50,000 per year greater than the most recent valid bid.
3) If the player nominated is already on another team's roster.
4) If the player nominated is still considered an MiLB player (<300 ABs, <100.0/50.0 IP).
5) If the bidding/nominating team does not have space on their 26-man MLB roster.
    5a) If the length in years of the bid would cause a team to exceed their limit on 3-5 year contracts

**In this case, The team's IL replacement bids will stay valid and become final up to the time that the roster limit is reached. Once a team's 26-man MLB roster limit is reached, any of that team's still pending IL-replacement bids will become invalid.

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Arbitration:
Managers can elect to tender/non-tender their minor leaguers at the conclusion of the season in which they surpass their positional thresholds (300 ABs for hitters, 100.0 IP for SP, 50.0 IP for RP). The rate for arbitration contracts (green players on the spreadsheet) are as follows, except in the case of International Free Agents⁺⁺:

Year 1 - $521,000
Year 2 - $521,000
Year 3 - $521,000
Year 4 - $2,000,000
Year 5 - $4,000,000

⁺⁺When drafting international players, they will still receive a 5 year arbitration contract, but the rates will follow their MLB salary in the year of their graduation.
Example: In 2023, Seiya Suzuki surpassed 300 MLB ABs and was eligible for an arbitration contract. He made $8,000,000 in 2023, so his arbitration contract was as follows:
Year 1- $8,000,000
Year 2- $8,000,000
Year 3- $8,000,000
Year 4- $8,000,000
Year 5- $8,000,000
The contract will appear green on the spreadsheet and the player can be dropped without any cap penalty at any time, like a regular arbitration player.

In the case of an abnormal International Free Agent Contract, in the case of a large signing bonus or a large sum of deferred money, exceptions to this may be made. The determined rates for any players that fall under this exception will be communicated to all owners before the start of that year's MiLB Draft. For example, prior to the 2024 season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed a twelve-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $325 million. This deal contained a $50 million signing bonus, and the arbitration rate for Yamamoto was raised from his 2024 salary of $5,000,000 to $9,166,666 using the adjusted salary listed on Spotrac.

If the player's real life contract is for less than our standard progressive arbitration contract, the player will instead fall under our arbitration rate for all applicable years.

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Restricted Free Agents:
Each offseason, each manager will be able to choose up to 3 players on expiring contracts to become restricted free agents (RFAs).
The initial RFA contracts extended to players will be one year in length and worth $15,700,000. These initial bids will be placed by a league manager, but in the name of the RFA team, in the 2025 RFAs board on the forum. Bidding will open all at once at a predetermined time.

If an RFA player is won by a team other than his original team (original meaning the team that owned the player at the end of the current year (2024), the winning team forfeits a 1st round pick to the original team. If a “winning team” owns more than one 1st round pick at the time the RFA is won, the “winning team” would first forfeit their own pick (if they still own it), then their highest available pick(s).

A team can bid on the number of RFA players that equals the number of 1st round picks they have. If Dodgers own 3 1st round picks, Dodgers can bid on/win 3 RFA players. If a team does not own a 1st round pick, they cannot bid on RFA*.

*An owner may bid on an RFA without a first if and only if they will have a 1st round pick by way of their RFA being bid upon.
Example: If the Baltimore Orioles do not possess any 1st round picks during RFA bidding, but they extend an RFA offer to Framber Valdez, and another team has outbid the initial bid on Framber Valdez, it is permissible for the Orioles to bid on another team's RFA with the knowledge the Orioles will be receiving a 1st round pick as compensation for another team signing Valdez.

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Dropping a Player:
To drop a player, create a new thread in the “2024 Player Drops” board with the player’s name in the thread title. If a team is dropping multiple players at once, the players can be listed under a single post with a title to the effect of "Dodgers Drops."

The penalty for dropping a player is 50% of their salary in the current season and 25% in any following seasons for which the player is under contract.

Players on arbitration contracts are excluded from these penalties and can be dropped at any time with no penalty for the current or any future years.

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Minor League Draft Rules:
The draft will begin around the second week of February, to be announced by a league manager. For a yet to be determined time before the start of the current year MiLB draft and through the current year Draft's conclusion, managers will not discuss the names of unrostered, draft-eligible players in any public league chat.

The minor league draft is 7 rounds long and does not snake. The team in slot 1 will always pick first in the round, slot 2 will always pick second, and so on. Each manager will have 24 hours to make their selection via posting in the 2024 MiLB Draft Order thread on the forum.

If you miss your pick, you can announce your selection at any time during the subsequent picks.  If a team has multiple picks in a row and has time run out for any of the picks, the draft moves to the next, different team to pick.  All picks that were skipped may be made up during the subsequent picks.

Draft order is determined by winner of the Consolation Bracket to loser of the Consolation Bracket, followed by order of the Championship Bracket, as follows:

Championship matchup teams get slots 13/14; Third place matchup teams get slots 11/12; Fifth place matchup teams get slots 9/10. The winners get the higher pick, except in the case of the championship, where the League Champion receives the 14th pick.

Trading Draft Picks:
From the end of the 2024 MiLB Draft until the end of the 2024 MLB season, teams must have at least 4 picks owned at all times. From the day after the finish of the 2024 MLB regular season through the completion of the 2025 MiLB Draft, teams may have less than 4 picks owned.

Minor league draft picks can be traded throughout the year, but only picks from the current year may be traded. Ex: prior to the conclusion of the 2024 draft, no 2025 picks may be traded.

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MiLB Graduation Threshold:
The threshold for a minor league player to graduate as a major league player at the end of the season or for an unrostered minor league player to become an MLB free agent during the current season are as follows:
Position players: 300 AB
Relief Pitchers: 50.0 IP
Starting Pitchers: 100.0 IP

A pitcher’s individual threshold is no longer determined by which position they were in the minors, and instead by where they are used in the majors:

SP v RP?
For any pitcher with at least 50.0 innings pitched in his MLB career, if he has started less than 25% of the MLB games in which he has pitched, his graduation threshold has been reached. This determination is made at the end of the season for rostered prospects (consistent with all other rostered prospects) and on a rolling basis for non-rostered players.

During the Graduation Period after the season, graduating prospects can be tendered an arbitration contract or non-tendered and dropped without salary penalty. If a player who has graduated is non-tendered by their team, they become an MLB free agent eligible to be nominated by any team.

International Free Agents:
Any stats accrued by players in foreign leagues do not count towards graduation, even if the player was drafted domestically first. International players who graduate from MiLB to MLB will have their arbitration salaries set by giving them a 5 year contract with a yearly salary that is equal to their MLB salaries in the year they graduate, as outlined above.  

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Trades
All trades need to be posted on the “2024 Trades” board in a separate thread with the title of the thread being the names of the teams involved.

Teams may trade cap space. There is no limit on how much cap you can trade in, but cap traded out is limited to $20,000,000. Cap space may only be traded within the current season.

Trade Veto:
Within 24 hours of a trade being agreed to on the forum, if two managers contest the trade privately to a League Manager, a veto may be considered.

Once 2 protests are documented, the League Manager will have private conversations with enough managers to determine if six of the twelve other managers support a veto. If six managers do support a veto, the 3 League Mangers will convene and produce a decision.

*Conversations and votes will remain confidential to encourage honesty and respect manager privacy.
Miscellaneous:

Retiring Players:
There is no salary cap penalty if an MLB player retires and a manager drops the retired player from their roster.

New Manager Trade Waiting Period:
To ensure a new manager is a fit for the league, a new manager is not allowed to make trades for 72 hours after joining. The new manager must have heavy chat participation in that 72-hour window to show commitment to the league and to give the other thirteen owner ample time to discuss trades.

New Manager Concession:
As with any long-term league, there will be teams that become abandoned. In an effort to encourage new managers willing to take over teams that may have been mismanaged or neglected, the league may grant new managers one of the following concessions to jump-start their new team:

1. Rework one contract on the team at the time of arrival in terms of salary amount. For instance, if the previous manager overbid on a player, the new manager may rework the salary to lower it to a reasonable salary. The new manager can propose a new salary to a League Manager. The contract will be lowered to a 1/2/3-year contract.
**Note: The new manager concession is for a player whose salary is too high for his performance. It is not for a manager to reduce the cost of a player of their choosing.
OR
2. Drop one player without a cap penalty.

The concession must be announced within 7 days of joining the league.

Playoff & Prediction Bonuses:
Postseason births will be awarded with the following cash cap bonuses the following year.
• League World Series Champion: $1,000,000
• League World Series Runner-up: $500,000