INDEX – Click to go directly to section
1. Contract Rules
2. Rule 5 Draft
3. Contract Violations
4. Fines
5. Amateur Draft
6. Minor League Roster Limits
7. Qualifying Offers
8. Revenue Sharing
9. Trades
10. Rule Changes
11. Recruting Incentive
12. GM Team Movement
Contract Rules
Team Options are permitted ONLY for Free Agents, and must contain at least 35% buyout for that season. Team Options in extensions are prohibited.
Vesting Options
Prohibited due to being easily abused.
Multi-year extensions can be offered to players only when they have reached 2 Years of MLB Service Time.
In a multi-year extension, no contract amount can be +/- 50% of the prior years dollar amount. This applies even when buying out arbitration years. Current year salary is not included in this calculation.
Bonuses – Performance and incentive bonuses (combined) must not exceed 50% of the Average Annual Value (AAV) of a contract.
For incentives, max IP = 180 and max PA = 550
Rule 5 Draft
The Rule 5 draft takes place at the end of December. It is a way that CLB clubs can snag minor leaguers from other organizations who are not on their 40 man rosters. Only certain players are protected. The rules do not mirror reality exactly, so please understand the rules and carefully check your lists.
Any player drafted must remain on your 26 man Active Roster or DL all season long.
Click here to read more about the Rule 5 draft in the OOTP Manual: http://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com/index.php?man=ootp12&page=rule_5_draft
Please note you can see your own Rule 5 eligible players via two methods –
1. On the Rosters & Transactions screen, take note of any player with a # sign after their name
2. On the Front Office screen, you can change the widgets via down arrow. One widget allows you to see all Rule 5 eligible players. Talented players should be added to your 40 man roster to prevent them from being taken by another team.
Vacant teams and New GMs (under 1/2 season) will be protected from having players taken in the Rule 5 Draft, unless they opt-in. Likewise, they cannot take players themselves.
A list will be publicized in advance of which teams are protected so you don’t add any of those players to your Draft Lists. Any prohibited player added to lists and drafted will be returned.
Contract Violations
Extensions – Extension will be voided and fine applied.
Free Agent Signings – Contract will be edited to Fine Amount and player released. This will result in the player being unwilling to resume talks with your team and is designed to allow other teams to have a shot at the player.
Fines
These fines will be applied when violating above contract rules and for extending a Qualifying Offer to a player who has already received one in his career. All fines & voids will be noted in the Editor Log.
Contract fines amounts are as follows, per GM:
1st Fine= $250k
2nd Fine = $500k
3rd Fine = $750k
4th Fine = $1.0m
5th Fine = 1% of Budget
6th Fine = 1.5% of Budget
Roster fines will be levied on Opening Day for having players on your 26 man roster that are not part of the 40 man roster. Fine will be 0.5% of budget.
Trade fines will be applied when making a trade that later becomes impossible to process. This means promising cash at a future date and then having no cash, or trading a draft pick away and then not having the pick to send. Fine is 4% of budget.
Amateur Draft
The Amateur Draft takes place on the Stats Plus website. The draft class is loaded during the Pre-season and the draft typically begins around early May.
The order of the draft is based on the reverse order of the final regular-season standings with the exception of the first six picks, which are determined by a lottery held during the Preseason. The rules for the draft lottery are essentially the same as MLB – all non-playoff teams are eligible for the lottery with statistical odds of securing one of the top six picks based on the final regular-season standings (teams lowest in the standings receive the highest statistical odds and vice-versa). A luxury tax paying team cannot “win” the lottery in consecutive years and non-luxury tax paying teams cannot “win” the lottery in 3 straight years.
Teams failing to sign a player from the first 3 rounds are awarded a compensatory pick in the following year’s draft. 1st and 2nd round compensatory picks are awarded one draft slot behind the original pick from the prior year (i.e. a #1 overall pick would become a #2 overall compensatory pick). 3rd round compensatory are awarded as supplemental picks between the 3rd and 4th rounds following the normal draft order of the teams involved. A compensatory pick will NOT be carried over beyond the following season.
Minor League Roster Limits
R – 35 Players; 22 years old max
Low A – 35 Players; 24 years old max
High A – 35 Players; 26 years old max
AA – 30 Players; 28 years old max
Qualifying Offers
Players can only receive a Qualifying Offer (QO) once in their career. If you submit a QO offer to a player who has already received one, you will be fined. Please view the QO log here: https://statsplus.net/clbsc/home/?page_id=94
The QO can be offered to players departing via Free Agency. It is done from the Salary Arbitration screen, as a way to get draft pick compensation when talented players depart. The amount is calculated as the Average of the top 125 salaries across the league. Historically, the amount has fluctuated between $15m-$17m
Team Losing Player:
If revenue sharing recipient & player signs for >$50m Guaranteed = 1st Rd Supp Pick
If revenue sharing recipient & player signs for <$50m Guaranteed = 2nd Rd Supp Pick
If neither revenue sharing recipient nor payer = 2nd rd Supp pick
If revenue sharing payer = 4th Rd Supp Pick
Team Signing Player:
Revenue Sharing Payer = 2nd & 5th Overall Picks (3rd & 6th for subsequent)
Revenue Sharing Recipient = 3rd Highest Pick (4th for subsequent)
Neither payer nor recipient = 2nd Highest Pick (3rd for subsequent)
The Qualifying Offer will be removed by the Commissioner upon start of the draft in Stats Plus.
Revenue Sharing
Current revenue sharing tiers are as follows:
>120% of avg payroll (~$145m) = 20% Tax
>$185m payroll = 25% Tax (5% in addition to the standard 20% listed above) with 1st Rd pick pushed back ten spots
Note A: First six protected
Note B: If 1st pick is traded, the ten spot penalty remains attached to pick
OOTP handles Tier 1 Revenue Sharing. Tier 2 is manually calculated and added to teams expenses.
Trades
New GMs must make three successful exports before they are allowed to make trades.
CLB Trade Deadline is approximately July 31st each season (precise date is adjusted to fall on a Monday in-game). There is no trading of “rostered” CLB players (including waiver trades) past this date.
Note: Non-40 man roster players can still be traded beyond the Trade Deadline.
Trades must be confirmed by both parties on the applicable Discord server channel. Trades will be processed the following sim upon conclusion of a minimum 24-hour Trade Committee review period. (i.e. Trades must be posted and confirmed by 9pm EST to be processed in the following sim). Trade must be created in-game by one of the trading parties after the 24-hour review period is complete. A trade is not considered complete until processed in game.
If a player is injured during the sim in which he is being traded (min. 2 weeks), the trade will not be posted until the receiving GM approves.
No player signed in the offseason to a major league contract can be traded until June 15th of the regular season.
Trading of draft picks is not permitted.
Trading of International Amateur Free Agent (IAFA) signing bonus money is allowed in increments of $250k and cannot exceed 60% of a team’s original signing bonus cap funds. For example, if a team had budgeted the maximum of $5m in IAFA signing bonus money then they could trade for up to an additional 60% (or $3m) in signing bonus cap money, for a total of $8m.
Rule Changes
Rule changes are voted upon in the off-season and results posted here. 60% voting majority is required for passage.
Recruiting Incentive
GMs new to the league may be able to void one contract of their choice upon taking over, subject to Commissioner discretion and based on a variety of factors, such as budget and recruiting difficulties. This does not apply to GMs who have left and returned at a later date. Voids will be noted in the editor log. A void can only be used on a given organization if there has not been one in the previous five seasons.
GM Team Movement
When the league has a vacancy, current GMs/members will be given the opportunity to request to fill the vacancy before attempting to recruit externally. The current GM/member must be considered to be in good standing (based upon the Commissioner’s discretion). If more than one current GM/member requests to fill the vacancy then priority will be based on who has the longest tenure with their current team.