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An Few Administrative Questions

MFS62 Sep 02 2005 06:04 PM

If the Mets pick up the option on Steve Traschell for 2006, is there a rule concerning the earliest they can trade him? (An NBA-type sign and trade deal) If the Mets don't pick up his option, can they still offer him arbitration? If not, and he becomes a free agent, when is the earliest they can re-sign him? I think there's a two week window after the World Series when only they can sign him. Is this true? If they don't sign him during that two week window, isn't there some rule that says they can't re-sign him until next Spring Training? Later

Frayed Knot Sep 02 2005 08:29 PM

MFS62 wrote: If the Mets pick up the option on Steve Traschell for 2006, is there a rule concerning the earliest they can trade him? (An NBA-type sign and trade deal) Newly signed FAs can't be traded until mid-season unless the player consents to waive that right (sign & trades don't exist in MLB). But the kink in the ointment here is that Trax becomes "10 & 5" if he re-ups here and therefore will have blanket no-trade protection both before and after that mid-season date. ]If the Mets don't pick up his option, can they still offer him arbitration? Yes, but that could be a more expensive way to go about things. As is, the option is for only something like $2.5mil (although I think there are complicated incentives that could drive it higher). Arb for him - even with the lost year - would automatically be pretty high just based on his service time alone. ]If not, and he becomes a free agent, when is the earliest they can re-sign him? It's not so much the earliest as the latest. Once the deadline passes for offering arb (early January?) you in effect give up any rights to him by not offering. This is to force teams to "declare" whether they want the player back and discourages them from cutting guys simply to try and drive his price down. If no arb is offered, his last team then can't sign him for the remainder of the winter and would have to wait to something like early May -- in other words, every other team would have to pass on him to the point where he'd still be unemployed a month into the season. I'm not sure this situation has happened since the collusion days. ]I think there's a two week window after the World Series when only they can sign him. Is this true? Yes. The open FA season doesn't begin until 2 weeks after baseball's season officially ends. Until then, a player can only talk money with his current team (although both sides certainly sniff around). ]If they don't sign him during that two week window, isn't there some rule that says they can't re-sign him until next Spring Training? No, he'll just a regular FA after those 2 weeks and all other clubs will have the same access to him as his current team. The restriction on his current team doesn't come until that arb cut-off date mentioned above.

Zvon Sep 03 2005 12:33 AM

great info Frayed. ]But the kink in the ointment here is that Trax becomes "10 & 5" if he re-ups here and therefore will have blanket no-trade protection both before and after that mid-season date. I wonder how much of a factor this is in the current state of affairs.

MFS62 Sep 03 2005 10:22 AM

Thanks, Frayed. It was that May date I was searching for, but didn't know how it fit into the equation. Later

Frayed Knot Sep 03 2005 01:43 PM

"I wonder how much of a factor this is in the current state of affairs." Shouldn't matter at all. He'll only be '10 & 5' if/when they pick up the option, in the meantime it won't matter if they pitch him 6 days a week or if they stick him in the corner and ignore him for the rest of the year.