Service-Time Manipulation Isn't Dead Yet
When MLB and the MLBPA agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement in 2022, among the major changes were the
Prospect Promotion Incentives . Because these made it possible for a team to earn an extra draft pick if one of their players won Rookie of the Year, the goal was to incentivize them to give top prospects earlier shots at stardom. And there is an argument that it has worked. Four players have earned PPI draft picks since 2022, with Julio Rodríguez notably doing so for the Seattle Mariners after he forced his way onto the Opening Day roster in '22. They used that pick on Jonny Farmelo, who is now a top-100 prospect in his own right. In other cases, though, teams have continued to be willing to hold their best prospects back
for the sake of stretching their periods of club control from six years to seven. It happened to Paul Skenes last year, and it is, arguably, happening to Roman Anthony and Bubba Chandler this year. The best hope here may be that cautionary tales take root with teams that would otherwise endeavor to engage in service-time manipulation. For example, the Pittsburgh Pirates played themselves with Skenes' timeline last year. Because he won the NL Rookie of the Year, he earned a full year of service time according to PPI rules. But because he did not serve 172 days with the Pirates, they did not get a draft pick out of his ROY win. Yet if there is a carrot here, it could involve expanding the PPI benefits to even further incentivize teams to be less conservative with prospect promotions. Whereas a team only gets a draft pick if a rookie
wins the Rookie of the Year, there should also be draft-related bonuses for those who place in, say, the top three of the voting. If not extra picks, then perhaps extra cash for teams' draft bonus pools.
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