re: Has Skenes and Crews been assigned yet?

This is all about the service time workaround. Especially for small market teams. Rangers are in their window which is why they kept Lankford

quote:

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A player becomes a free agent at the end of the season where they reach six years of service time. One year of service time, the maximum amount a player can gain in one season, is 172 days. A single baseball season lasts 187 days.

Simply, a player must be on a Major League roster or injured list in all but 15 days of a typical season to be able to accumulate one year of service time. This is where the manipulation can happen. A team may decide that a prospect is ready to be called up to the majors. However, if the team decides to wait just 16 days at the beginning of a season to call up the prospect, they can guarantee that the player will not be able to accrue their sixth year of service time until the first day of their seventh season.

Waiting just 16 days to call up a player can give a team an extra season to control a player. That extra season can also be with the league-minimum salary since players do not become eligible for salary arbitration until the season after they have accumulated three years of service time.

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