League Constitution (Official)

[Athletics GM (Jared)]

FRANCHISE MODE BASEBALL
OFFICIAL CONSTUTION & LEAGUE RULES

Article I: GENERAL
 1. Number of Teams - 30
 2. Player Universe - All MLB
 3. Scoring Website - Fantrax
 4. Transaction Website - Proboards
 5. League Buy-In & Payouts:
    a. Yearly dues of $25 will be paid by all managers including the commissioner(s).
    b. Fantrax premium league fees will be deducted from the pool.
    c. The remainder of the league dues will be paid out as follows:
       i. $25 for each playoff team
       ii. $25 additional for each division champ
       iii. 25% of the remaining pool to the league runner up
       iv. 75% of the remaining pool to the league champion

Article II: SCORING
 1. Head 2 Head scoring, 1 matchup per week, most categories won gets the W
 2. 7 Hitting Categories - Runs, Home Runs, RBI, Stolen Bases, Batting Average, OPS, Strikeouts
 3. 7 Pitching Categories - Quality Starts, Saves+Holds, Strikeouts-Walks, Strikeouts per 9, ERA, WHIP, Inherited Runners Stranded
 4. Regular Season Tiebreakers - None
 5. Post Season Tiebreakers:
    a. Runs
    b. ERA
    c. OPS
    d. Quality Starts
 6. Minimum Innings pitched per matchup week is 35 innings.  If the minimum is not reached all pitching categories are forfeited.

Article III: ROSTERS
 1. Initial Rosters
    a. Initial rosters will be made up of players from the real life roster of each team. Each owner will select a combination of MLB players and prospects to create their initial rosters.
    b. A minimum of 50 and a maximum of 60 total players may be included on the initial roster. The maximum number of MLB players is 40 and minimum number of MLB players is 20. Each owner will have discretion to choose the mix of players and contracts that best suits their strategy within these basic limits.
    c. Players that are eligible for initial rosters are players that are under team control in real life on the day after the 2020 World Series concludes. Any player that is a real life free agent after the 2020 World Series is a free agent in this league. Any player that is traded or released in real life at any time between the end of the 2020 World Series and the finalization of our intial rosters will remain with the team they played for in 2020.
 2. MLB Roster - 40 players
 3. MiLB Roster - 20 players
 4. Roster eligibility:
    a. Any player in MLB or MiLB can be rostered on the 40 man roster and their salary will count against the salary cap.
    b. Only players with less than 50 innings pitched and less than 130 at bats at the MLB level may be rostered on the 20 man MiLB roster. A player's eligibility is locked at the start of each season. If the player started the year under those limits, that player is eligible for the 20 man roster for the entire season.
    c. Only players with a salary equal to or less than $1,000,000 are eligible for the 20 man MiLB roster. All players signed for in excess of $1,000,000 must remain on the 40 man roster at all times.
 5. Callups & Demotions:
    a. A player may only be called up from the 20 man MiLB roster 3 times in any given season. The MiLB roster is not intended to be a shuttle roster for streaming players. Once the player has been called up for the 3rd time in a season, he may not be demoted until the offseason and only if he is still under the limits.
    b. All minor league transactions must be posted on the proboards site. Any use of a player from the 20 man MiLB roster in an active lineup without the proper transaction will result in an automatic loss for that game week. A second infraction will result in expulsion of the owner from the league.
 6. No player may be rostered in this league until they have signed with an MLB club. No foreign players, college players or amateur players of any kind may be signed. Free agents that have been under contract in MLB before are excluded from this provision.
 7. Injured List:
    a. Each team will have 3 injured list spots.
    b. Players can only be placed on the injured list if they are eligible for the IL on Fantrax.
    c. Placing a player on the injured list clears a roster spot, but it does not provide salary relief.
    d. At the end of the season all IL players will be returned to the 40 man roster during spreadsheet roll over. The IL is closed during the offseason and reopens at 12:01am on Opening Day.
 8. Starting Positions:
    a. Batters - C, CI, CI, MI, MI, OF, OF, OF, UT
    b. Pitchers - P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P

Article IV: STRUCTURE & PLAYOFFS
 1. Leagues:
Teams, Leagues and Divisions will follow the structure of real life MLB
 2. Schedule:
    a. 21 week regular season
    b. Each team plays their division rivals twice (8 games).
    c. Each team plays all teams in the other divisions in their league once (10 games).
    d. Each team plays three random interleague opponents (3 games). Matchups will be randomized using random.org and excel.
 4. Playoffs:
    a. 4 week playoffs
    b. All 6 division winners qualify for the playoffs
    c. 3 wild cards from each league qualify for the playoffs
    d. Top two seeds from each league get a 1st round bye
    e. Seeding is by league and is based on record. No advantage is given to division winners.
    f. World Series will be played during the second to last week of the real life mlb season. No scoring will take place during the final week due to the irregular use of players by real life managers.
    g. Divisional and Playoff Standings Tiebreakers are as follows: 1st = Head 2 Head Record; 2nd = Most Wins; 3rd = Most FPoints

Article V: SALARY STRUCTURE
 1. Salary Cap:
    a. The cap for the 2021 season is $160,000,000. This value was also used in 2022. The salary cap for the 2023 season was raised to $170,000,000.
    b. The league will vote during the 2021/2022 offseason to determine the cap for following seasons.
    c. Owners may roll over up to 10% of their cap space each year to the next season. This must be designated before the start of the season from which the cap space is transferred. At no time can a team's available space be more than 120% of the standard cap in any one season.
 2. Player Salaries:
    a. Real life salaries will be used for all MLB veterans at the start of the league. Real life salaries used in this league are as posted by Spotrac at www.spotrac.com/mlb/contracts/ in the "Base Salary" column. All other columns including bonuses, incentives and deferred values are ignored for our purposes. Only the "Base Salary" column will apply.
    b. A set scale will be applied to all players with MiLB eligibility at the start of the league and subsequent offseason drafts. This is being instituted to ease the burden of league management for tracking real life arbitration salaries and the chaos they can cause on salary caps. This scale is meant to approximate the 6 years of real life control that MLB teams have with new players. The scale is as follows:
       i. MiLB eligible players: $700,000
       ii. Pre-Arbitration players: $850,000
       iii. Arbitration players: Actual Arbitration Value
During the offseason but prior to the publication of actual arbitration values, the projected arbitration values listed on Spotrac will be used as placeholders in the official league spreadsheet to avoid inadvertant cap violations or gaming of the salary system.
    c. If an MiLB eligible player is acquired via free agency, the average annual salary of the winning bid will replace all years in the scale that are less than the bid. When the scale exceeds the winning bid, the scale value applies.
    d. If any player with a real life contract or rookie scale contract receives a real life extension, the team owner will have the option to accept or decline the extension as follows:
      i. The team owner will have 72 hours from the time the commissioner notifies of the extension to accept or decline. If the team owner fails to respond within 72 hours the extension will be applied. The only exception to this rule is if a player is on waivers at the time of their extension. In that rare case, the default action will be to decline the extension.
      ii. If the extension happens during the offseason and it is accepted it will be applied immediately to all years affected by the extension.
      iii. If the extension happens during the season and it is accepted it will be applied to all future seasons, but the current season's salary will remain unchanged.
      iv. If the extension is applied to a rookie scale or arbitration contract it becomes a guaranteed contract and all rules pertaining to guaranteed real-life contracts will apply.
      v. If the extension is declined only the years not affected by the extension and prior to the first extension year will remain. Say the player has 2 years left, 1 at $10m and 1 at $12m. The new extension leaves the $10m year in place and adds 4 more at $15m. If you decline that extension you only get the $10m year. This includes rookie scale and arbitration players.
    e. Players acquired via free agent bidding will hold contracts consistent with the free agency rules in Article VI. They are not eligible for real life extensions.
    f. If a player on a team control contract is non-tendered by his real-life club the GM here does not automatically lose the player to free agency. The player's contract value will reflect 50% of the player's pre-non-tender arbitration estimate from Spotrac until a new real life contract is signed and that information is reflected on Spotrac. If a player under this rule starts the season in the minors and still has no mlb contract, the GM may opt to turn the remaining years of control into a free agent style contract at the league minimum.
 3. Contract Buyouts:
    a. Any player contract may be bought out at any time during the offseason for 50% of the value of all remaining contract years. The buyout can be absorbed in one season or spread out evenly over the length of the contract at the owner's discretion.
    b. Player contracts may also be bought out during the regular season for the same cap penalty, however the salaries may not be absorbed in one season and will be automatically spread out over the length of the contract. If the contract being bought out is a free agent contract with a value of less than $1m for the current season there is no cap relief and the buyout is for the full buyout for the current season. Any additional seasons would receive the 50% cap relief.
    c. Any player that is MiLB eligible may be released in the offseason with no cap penalty or in season for a cap penalty of $100,000.
    d. Players that are on rookie scale contracts may be released in the offseason with no cap penalty, or during the season with a cap penalty of 50% of the current year salary only.
    e. Any player released may only be reaquired by the same team in the same season (including offseason) if the total of the new contract value and any cap hits involved in the release are equal to or greater than the original contract value for the current season. Player releases may not be used to save cap space without the loss of the player's services.

Article VI: FREE AGENCY
 1. Free Agent Eligibility:
    a. Any player on an expiring real life contract without a real life extension
    b. Any player on an expiring rookie scale contract without a real life extension
    c. Any player on an expiring free agent contract
 2. Bidding:
    a. All bids for free agents must state a contract amount and number of years.
    b. The minimum bid is $700,000
    c. The minimum increase per bid is $200,000
    d. The maximum bid for a 1 year contract is $15,000,000
    e. The maximum bid for a 2 year contract is $22,000,000
    f. The maximum bid for a 3 year contract is $25,000,000
    g. All bids placed must fit within your available cap space while they are live bids. Just because you think you won't win all of the players you are bidding on does not mean you can exceed your cap in bids. A first violation will result in a 24 hour suspension from free agency. A second violation will result in a 7 day suspension and a third violation will result in expulsion from the league.
    h. Bidding on MiLB players is not allowed. See article IX for MiLB players.
    i. Bidding ends when the high bid has reached 24 hours.
 3. Franchise Tag:
    a. Each team has one franchise tag. Not one per season, one tag total.
    b. The tag may be used on one free agent player to retain that player for their real life contract. If it's an expiring real life contract, whatever the new real life contract turns out to be that will apply here. If it's an expiring free agent contract, the real life contract will now apply.
    c. Once the tag is applied to a player, it stays with that player until the contract is complete. You will not be able to tag any other player until that contract is complete.
    d. Players with a franchise tag contract will only be tradeable to a team with an open franchise tag. At the completion of the trade the GM trading away the player will have their franchise tag back and the GM receiving the player will now be using their franchise tag on the newly aquired player. At no time may any team have more than one player under the franchise tag.
 4. Restricted Tag:
    a. Each team will have one restricted tag per season.
    b. The tag must be applied to one player prior to free agency. Once the market has determined a winning bid for that player, the tag owner will have the right to match the contract. Both dollar value and years must be matched. The tag owner may agree to additional contract years if they choose.
    c. Restricted tag owners will be notified by the commissioner of the terms of the winning bid and will have 24 hours to match or decline the contract.
 5. All players not tagged with a franchise or restricted tag are unrestricted free agents.
 6. A compensation pick in the next MiLB draft will be awarded to a team that loses a valuable free agent. These picks will be awarded on a tiered basis based on the winning free agent bid. Picks in each tier will be ordered by dollar amount with ties broken by the team record in inverse order of the previous season standings. The tiers are as follows:
    a. Under $10,000,000 - No compensation.
    b. $10,000,000 to 17,499,999 - Supplemental pick after Round 3.
    c. $17,500,000 to $24,999,999 - Sandwich pick between Round 2 and Round 3.
    e. $25,000,000 and above - Sandwich pick between Round 1 and 2.

Article VII: MLB WAIVERS
 1. Any player may be placed on waivers at any time prior to the trade deadline. The team that owns the player continues to pay the player's salary while they are on waivers, but the player's roster space is freed up.
 2. If another team claims the player off of waivers that team is now responsible for the player's full salary and contract. The original team then receives the corresponding salary cap relief.
 3. Waiver claims will be processed based on a rotating waiver order. The waiver order will start out as the reverse order of the original player draft. Each time a team makes a successful waiver claim they move to the end of the order. This order never resets.
 4. When players are placed on waivers all teams have 24 hours to place a claim. At the end of the 24 hours the team with the highest waiver order number that places a claim will receive the player. If no claims are made in the first 24 hours the next claim that is made will be the winning claim instantly.
 5. Waivers expire only when the player's contract expires. As long as the player is under contract and unclaimed he remains on waivers.
 6. No team may have more than 10 players on waivers at any time.
 7. MiLB eligible players are not eligible for MLB waivers.

Article VIII: TRADING
 1. Trading is legal during the season up until the trade deadline and at any time during the off season.
 2. All trades will be automatically processed after 24 hours.
 3. If any manager in the league has an issue with a trade they must submit a trade protest via private message to the commissioner's office within 24 hours. One protest will trigger a league wide vote on the trade by all managers not involved in the trade. In order for a trade to be vetoed a simple majority (or more than 50%) of the managers not involved in the trade must vote to veto. The trade will pass on votes with less than 50% voting veto and on tied votes. All veto votes must include a detailed explanation of why the trade should be vetoed.
 4. Teams are allowed to absorb up to 50% of the contract of a player they are trading away in the form of a cap hit similar to a contract buyout. The amount of the buy-down must be posted with the trade so that it can be evaluated as part of the deal. The buy-down will apply to all years of the contract evenly and the cap hit will apply to all years evenly.
  a. A player may not be traded to one team and then traded back to the original team with a reduced contract.
  b. A contract may not be reduced by a third party team in a three or more team trade.
  c. A player who is signed in FM free agency may not have their contract reduced within the first year of the contract signing.
  d. A team control or arbitration contract (see Article V.2.b) may not be reduced. Only fixed value contracts may be reduced.
  e. The cap hit associated with a player buy down is fixed and is not affected by what that new player's team may do with future player releases or cap hits. The only exception is for a real life contract that has options. If the option is not picked up in real life, both the new owner and the team that bought down the contract get relief.
  f. Once a player's contract has been bought down to 50% of its original value, it is not eligible for further buydowns. 

Article IX: MiLB Players
 1. Each offseason there will be a 3 round draft of players from the most recent MLB draft, any international free agents signed during the season and any other unsigned MiLB eligible players.
 2. The draft order will be the inverse order of the final season standings with the top 5 picks being determined by a draft lottery.
 3. During the season draft picks are tradeable only for the next upcoming draft. Draft picks for the following season become tradeable when trading reopens in the offseason. This results in draft picks from two different drafts being tradeable at the same time for a small window during the offseason leading up to the draft and during the draft.
 4. Draft pick trades follow all of the rules laid out in Article VIII. If a traded pick comes on the clock before the 24 hour period and any potential veto vote is complete, the original team must make the pick and the player picked will then be included in the trade if/when it is processed.
 5. At the conclusion of the draft there will still be players that teams want to add. We will implement a waiver process to address these adds:
  a. All minor leaguers that went undrafted will be subject to waivers for 1 week.
  b. Teams will submit a list of players that they wish to nominate for waivers.
  c. The commissioner will post all of the players as individual threads according to the order of how many teams asked for them to be nominated.
  d. All teams then have an opportunity to make claims and withdraw claims as much as they want for the entire week.
  e. At the end of the week players will be processed in the order they were posted by the commish according to the waiver order.
 6. Any minor league free agent that doesn't get drafted or taken on waivers will be available first come/first served as an instant signing to the team that posts them at the standard minor league salary. This process resets at the end of the regular season when transactions lock and any unowned minor leaguer at that point would next be available in that offseason's draft.
 7. Any minor leaguer released by a team between the end of the post-draft waivers and the end of season lock will be subject to a 24 hour waiver period:
  a. Any team can post to add the player.
  b. Other teams can post a claim in reply.
  c. After 24 hours the team with the highest waiver priority according the order carrying over from the post-draft period will win the player.
  d. If no one posts them in the first 24 hours after they were posted for release, they have cleared waivers and are available to the first team to post.
 8. All MiLB eligible players will have the league minimum salary.



Constitution Edit Log:
1/16/2021 - Article IX.3 revised to allow trading of future season draft picks when trading reopens each offseason.
9/23/2021 - Articles V.2.d and III.7 revised as noted here: franchisemode.proboards.com/thread/1483/rule-clarifications-2022?page=1&scrollTo=4012
9/23/2021 - Added IV.4.g to document the standings tie breakers already in place.
12/2/2022 - Amended per the 2023 rules package available here: franchisemode.proboards.com/thread/3326/2023-rules-package
3/30/2023 - Added V.2.f per the announcement here: franchisemode.proboards.com/thread/4294/non-tender-player-rule-ammendment
3/31/2023 - Amended IL rule per the announcement here: franchisemode.proboards.com/thread/4301/injured-list-rule-ammendment