re: DAT 4/19: Astros (Morton) @ Mariners (Gonzales) 2:40 CT

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Yesterday I explained service time (and how teams manipulate it) so people can see when the earliest they will likely see the debut of their teams top prospects.

In the comments someone requested an explanation of Super Two Status.... So here is a quick run through of that for those interested:

MLB players are under team control for 6 full seasons (a season is classified as 172 days in MLB) in the majors, which in turn gives teams close to 7 seasons of control of said players (if a player has 5.171 years of service time, the team has another year of control).

You may see service time written as something like 2.134 years - this means 2 years and 134 days... Not 2 years and 13.4% of year 3.

For the first 3 seasons of control players can be renewed by their team for the major league minimum (in 2018 the minimum is $545k). While some teams have all different methods to determine the salary the team will offer each player... the player has no say in what they are paid.

After the first 3 full years a player is eligible for arbitration where players can negotiate their own salary. The system is largely based on comparisons to similar players and recent contracts other players have signed.

If the team and player do not agree on a salary they can go to an arbitration hearing. Prior to the hearing the team and player will both submit a salary they think is appropriate for the upcoming season and then a panel of 3 arbitrators (one from MLB, one from MLBPA, and one independent) will decide which number is best (there is no middle ground for the Arbitrators it is either one or the other).

However, there is a group of players with between 2 and 3 full seasons that qualify for arbitration a year early. These are called Super Two players. Basically the top 22% of the service class is who qualifies for the Super Two status.

Usually once you have about 2 years and 130 days you would qualify. However, because it is a percentage based on the service class each season it varies season to season. Typically it falls somewhere in the range of 2.120 and 2.150.

The past few seasons have been:

2017 - 2.123
2016 - 2.131
2015 - 2.130
2014 - 2.133

Finally, teams will use this information to hold players down in the minors to avoid them becoming a Super Two player. Since a Team can delay a players free agency by a year by keeping them down for 16 days for 2018, a team may also wish to avoid the player obtaining Super Two status. Generally since the Super Two status comes at range of 120 - 150 days for each service class and this season having 187 days, if a player is held down for 68 days they will likely avoid Super Two status. However, because this is not a concrete number the player will normally spend an extra week or so in the minors on top of the 68 days to be safe. The player most likely to suffer from this misfortune of service time manipulation this year is probably Ronald Acuña of the Braves.

tl;dr - Players can go to arbitration 3 times of their 6 full service years. However, players can qualify for Super Two status if they are near the top of the service class and between 2 and 3 seasons of service time (top 22%) and go to arbitration an extra time.

Link to Service Time post: https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/8017c8/explaining_mlb_service_time/

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And I think a lot of this stuff is up for change during the next CBA.

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Jake

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American League leaders in ERA (min. 15IP)
1. Gerrit Cole: 0.96
2. Charlie Morton: 1.00
3. Chris Sale: 1.23
4. Justin Verlander: 1.35

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