The Rule 5 Draft in OOTP

Plus - an explanation of what it is in real life

The Rule 5 Draft in OOTP

If you dive right in and play OOTP without reading up first, you’ll run into a problem right after your first season. In December right after your first season, you’ll run into something called the Rule 5 Draft. And, if you aren’t careful, you’ll wind up losing some of your best young players.

So what is “Rule 5” anyway? Why is this important? Why does it even exist?

The Rule 5 Draft is actually a thing in real life. It’s not just an OOTP conspiracy to frustrate you.

Of course, Wikipedia doesn’t give you the whole story. Fortunately, there are archived articles like this one that give us a bit more historical insight.

You see, the story of baseball ownership and roster management is a constant battle between the owners and themselves. The owners have historically wanted to exercise their monopolistic power to keep player salaries down as much as possible — and yet the same owners have inevitably overpaid for talent, worried in part by players holding out or retiring early (such as Honus Wagner’s threats in 1908) and motivated in part by a desire to sign the best youngsters to eye popping contracts.

Pick a random reserve clause year — 1948, for example — and check out what The Sporting News reported on. You’ll inevitably find front page articles about owners who don’t follow the arbitrary rules the owners agreed on, such as this one:

We’ll talk about the bonus baby phenomenon and all the craziness it caused in a later post. The important thing here is to realize that baseball owners have never been able to stop themselves from breaking their own rules. Marvin Miller’s success at the head of the Player’s Association in the early 1970s was largely because he recognized this simple fact: the owners will always cheat their own system.

As the years have gone by, Major League Baseball has tried its hardest to prevent teams from spending insane amounts of money to stockpile the best youngsters. In the mid-1960s, Major League Baseball created the “amateur draft,” which is otherwise known as the “Rule 4 Draft.” This was called the “Rule 4 Draft” because of its placement in the Major League Baseball rules. We’ve covered the arcane rules behind draft picks and compensatory picks for teams losing free agents in a prior post.

Now, the truth is that the MLB draft doesn’t attract the same kind of attention that the NBA and NFL drafts attract. This is in large part because of the extensive colonial Minor League system that MLB teams continue to use. A team will likely only feel the effects of a #1 pick several years down the line, unless the player chosen is indeed an exceptionally rare talent.

If you’ve got a Rule 4 Draft, you must have a Rule 5 Draft, right?

The Rule 5 Draft is a redrafting rule intended to prevent teams from stockpiling good youngsters in the minor leagues. It also operates along rules that are quite reminiscant of the old reserve clause days.

Players are eligible to be chosen by other teams in the Rule 5 Draft if they are not on the major league organization’s 40 man roster. Players are also generally only eligible if this is the 4th Rule 5 draft that has come around since the beginning of their professional career — unless the player was originally signed at age 18 or younger.

Now, if a team chooses a player through the Rule 5 draft, that player is automatically added to their 40 man roster. In other words, this isn’t the sort of draft where you go choose a bunch of random lousy players that are long shots. You want to focus your selections on players you think have a legitimate chance.

Still, the Rule 5 Draft is a big bargain to clubs in real life. A draftee costs $100,000, which can be an absolute steal if you find the right unprotected player. And, yes, the best way to defend against having a player chosen is to simply stick him on the 40 man roster.

Now, there are a few oddities in OOTP relating to the Rule 5 Draft that you need to keep in mind if you’re going to take advantage of it:

OOTP gives you 30 days between the announcement of the Rule 5 Draft pool and the draft itself for scouting.

• There is no $100,000 draft fee in OOTP.

• There is no “minor league phase” of the Rule 5 Draft in OOTP (note that I’m not entirely sure what this refers to in real life).

• Rule 5 Draft picks in real life are sometimes offered back to their original teams under somewhat bizarre rules — more evidence of the arbitrary nature of the MLB monopoly. This does not happen in OOTP.

There are a few other things you need to keep in mind:

• You need to have a spot open on your 40 man roster to make a Rule 5 pick.

• Once you’ve selected a Rule 5 player, he must remain on your active roster or disabled list for the entire next season.

• You can waive the player picked from your roster. However, the team picking that player up on waivers must then keep him on the active roster or disabled list for the entire season.

• You can also trade the player - but the team picking him up also needs to keep him on the active roster or disabled list.

• You’ve got to keep the player on the active roster for 90 days after choosing him. This prevents teams from picking players and dumping them on the disabled list right away.

Though it’s confusing, the Rule 5 Draft is actually a very powerful tool if you use it strategically. However, to use it right, you’ll need to understand how to use the 40 man roster and what pitfalls to avoid. We’ll talk about that next time.