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November 21, 2005

The BP Guide to Transaction Rules

Trade Demands

by Thomas Gorman

Today, we launch a new series, the Baseball Prospectus Guide to Transaction Rules. In the coming weeks and months we'll explain some of the more confusing sections of the Major League Rules and the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and we'll put those rules into a context that explains how they impact the way teams are constructed.

Our first entry explains the trade-demand right guaranteed by Article XX(C) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. This provision was recently invoked by Diamondbacks starter Javier Vazquez.

TRADE DEMAND

If a player with at least five years of major-league service is traded in the middle of a multi-year contract, he has the right to demand a trade after the season. If the player so chooses, he can also identify as many as six teams to which he will not accept a trade. Notice of the trade demand must be given within the 15-day period beginning on October 15 (or the day following the last game of the World Series, whichever is later). Like many other rights secured by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, notice is first communicated by the player to the MLB Players' Association, and then by the Association to Major League Baseball's Labor Relations Department.

The player's club has until March 15 to trade him, and if they fail to do so, the remaining years on the player's multi-year contract are voided and he becomes a free agent. Any club signing such a player does so without regard to either the compensation requirement of the CBA (which requires draft pick compensation to clubs that lose Type A, B or C free agents) or the quota provisions (which limits the number of Type A and B free-agent signings allowed to each club in years with few free agents).

A player making this sort of trade demand can retract it without consequences by March 15 if his club hasn’t yet traded him.