Upon Further Review: Baseball’s ‘winter rules’ explained
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Transactions are being made on a daily basis with many players who are in salary arbitration. Words we hear during the season come to life during the winter as many players and teams use “The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book,” not to be confused with the “Official Baseball Rules” to help them secure a financial future for themselves.
Here are just a few of the famous words we have all come to know over the years, as well as their definitions courtesy of “The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book.”
Arbitration — Arbitration is a procedure in which a dispute is submitted, by agreement of the parties, to an arbitrator who gives a decision on the dispute that is binding on both parties.
In other words, when a player and the team in which their currently playing for can’t reach a salary agreement then somebody else steps in and decides on how much that player is worth.
Waivers — Waivers is a very complicated aspect of the rules. In the rule book a waiver is defined as “permission granted for certain assignment of players contracts or for the unconditional release of a Major League player.”
Basically, what this means is the team can do with the player’s contract as it pleases. Which usually means they will (A) send him to the minors, (B) They can release him, which will make the player a free agent or (C) trade him to another team.
Options — After three years as a pro, a player must be protected on a team’s 40-man roster. When a player is on the 40-man roster but not the 25-man Major League roster, he is on optional assignment.
A common misconception about the rule is that a player may only be optioned out three times. Actually, each player has three option years and he can be sent up and down as many times as the club chooses within those three seasons.
Veteran Players — This is any player who has been in the major leagues for five full seasons. A veteran may not be assigned to a minor-league team without his consent. The player has the right to tell a club that they can either release him and keep paying his contract or keep him on the major league club.
So, what does all this mean?
It means baseball players are overpaid and have the final say-so in who they play for, and how much they will get.
Look at Greg Maddux, who is asking for $16 million in arbitration. The Braves countered with an offer of $13.5 million, which is about the same as he made in 2002. Atlanta has already let Tom Glavine pack his bags for New York and Kevin Millwood settled for $9.9 million with the Phillies.
Clubs can’t keep paying these prices for a product which may not even help their team. Will the players ever realize that this spending by the owners is going to hurt the future of the game?
If players keep getting more money — which they claim they’re worth — then the prices of tickets are going to be out of the reach of the middle-class American. Sure, the owners are trying to make a profit; after all, that’s one of the reasons they own a team, to make money. But the players feel they should be making more than the owners.
Here’s an idea, why don’t Glavine, Maddux and maybe Derek Jeter pool their money together and buy a ball team, put the shoe on the other foot so to speak. Maybe they might just understand you can live on $2-3 million a year.