In what I hope to be the thing I do that sets me apart from the other blogs (yes, please read that in a snooty English accent, cause that'd totally work), I have a series that is dedicated to busting baseball myths, misconceptions, incorrect thinkings and other, random bits of wrongness folks have about the baseball world.
This episode is going to focus in on Service Time and the implications of that service time. I am writing this really late at night so you are getting the Cliff Notes version...but it should be a good first lesson.
So first, let's define what we mean by Service Time. Basically, any time from Opening Day until the last day of the season that a player is on a clubs Active Roster or the ML Disabled List. It doesn't matter if you get called up and ride the pine for the entire season and see no game action or if you spend the entire year on the 40-Man Roster but recovering from Tommy John.
Simple enough, there are 183 possible days in a baseball season and 172 of those days constitutes a year. Oooookay. I have searched previously for the exact reason for this but laziness and a sense of common leads me to believe this was instituted to keep organizations from witholding a player from Opening Day or optioning them to the minors on the last day of the season to gain a cheap, extra year of control.
Now, teams that are out of the playoff race could easily de-roster their big time prospects for the last month of the season and send them to a minor league team for playoff experience but, generally, teams try to not be overly obvious that they are playing the game to get the extra year of control.
Wait, there is a term I brought in there, extra year of control. A player can only become a free agent if they have acquired 6 years of service. Therefore, if a player gets 5 years and 172 days of service time or more, they become a free agent at the end of that season. It is in the best interest of the team to get their players as close to, without going over, 5 years and 171 days of service time without appearing to look like they are intentionally trying to get to 5 years and 171 days of service time (hence the reason you see teams holding players back until May 1 to call up, it's less obvious).
We now know that you can get close to 7 years of service from a prospect, if you play the game right. How does this fit in with Olt? Well, currently, according to Baseball-Reference, Mike Olt has 0.063 of service time. This is listed as Years.Days so he has 0 years and 63 days of service time. Now, if the Cubs call up Olt on Opening Day and he sticks in the majors, he will become a free agent shortly after turning 31. If the Cubs wanted the option to retain Olt for his age 31 season (he'd become a free agent shortly after turning 32) they have to stay under 0.172 service time this season. That means, they would have to hold Olt in the minors until June 14 which would give him, precisely, 0.171 days of service time (assuming that MLB is using March 31 as the first day they begin calculating the season).
So what about Super-Two? This is a case where the player has accrued, at least, well...shit, I'll just let MLB.com explain it:
A player with at least two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if he has accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding season and he ranks in the top 22 percent (increased from 17 percent in previous agreements) in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but less than three years of Major League service, however accumulated, but with at least 86 days of service accumulated during the immediately preceding season.Whew. I don't try to pretend to be able to calculate this. Just know that a team avoids their player earning this status by calling up the player sometime after mid-July for players that have no service time and if Olt is avoiding Super-Two status with an extra year of control, we probably won't have to worry about Super-Two with him. But, for the fun of the article, let's explain that.
Ok, so after 3-years (or whatever the hell Y.DDD the above paragraph comes out to, exactly), players are eligible to go through Arbitration. Basically, they start getting paid. Typically, teams and players agree to a salary for the year and no one actually hits "Arbitration". If the player and the team cannot agree to a salary, they present their cases to an independent arbiter who decides if the player or the team made the better argument and pays the player what the winner wanted. So if Player wants $2 and the team wants $1 and the team does a better job of convincing the arbiter they are right, the Player gets paid $1 for the upcoming season.
So, a typical player will get 3 years of arbitration adjusted salaries. A Super-Two player gets 4 years. Here is how it breaks out:
Non-Super Two:
- Season 1: Player on Opening Day Roster with 0.000 Service Time - Team dictated salary at league minimum. Ends the year at 1.000 Service Time
- Season 2: Ends the year at 2.000 Service Time - Team dictated but, generally, a small bump in pay
- Season 3: Ends the year at 3.000 Service Time - Team dictated, small bump in pay
- This offseason, the player is eligible for an arbitration hearing to determine his salary
- Season 4: Ends the year at 4.000 Service Time - Arbitration dictated, nice raise but far below free agency value
- Season 5: Ends the year at 5.000 Service Time - Arbitration dictated, another raise but still below free agency value
- Season 6: Ends the year at 6.000 Service Time - Arbitration dictated and getting closer to free agency value
- At the end of Season 6, the player, barring an extension, becomes a free agent.
Super-Two
- Season 1: Player called up sometime between day 11 and mid-July with 0.000 Service Time - League Minimum (team dictated)
- Season 2: Player ends the year at 1.130 Service Time (random number) - Team dictates salary, generally a little over league minimum (Trout broke the record with $1M pre-arb salary)
- Season 3: Player ends the year at 2.130 Service Time - Team dictated salary
- This offseason, the player is eligible for an arbitration hearing to determine his salary
- Season 4: Player ends the year at 3.130 Service Time - Arbitration dictated salary
- Season 5: Player ends the year at 4.130 Service Time - Arbitration dictated salary (a raise over the previous year's salary, but still far below full free agency value)
- Season 6: Player ends the year at 5.130 Service Time - Arbitration dictated salary - getting closer to free agency value
- Season 7: Player ends the year at 6.130 Service Time - Arbitration dictated salary - very close to free agency value
- At the end of season 7 (notice, the team gets an extra year), the player has had 4 salaries dictated by arbitration and is now a free agent.
If Olt is on the Opening Day roster (or at any point before June 14) he will go down the first path and become a free agent with somewhere between 6.063 and 6.000 of service time.
Confused? Good...just know that there is no reason to keep Olt down in Iowa to gain the extra year of control just to do it. If he needs some work down there or his injury keeps him sidelined for the whole month of April...then sure, why not. Holy shit, and that was the Cliff Notes version.
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