4/14/23

Tom Brennan - Our Three AAA Sluggers So Far, and Service Time Considerations


Brett Baty - Photos courtesy of Richard Nelson 

A while back I did an article on service time rules, as follows below.  Keep that in mind as you peruse the following info about Messrs. Baty, Mauricio, and Vientos, each of whom is hitting quite notably in the early going.

Baty: 12 for 31, 2 doubles, 4 HRs, 10 RBIs, 6 walks, just 3 Ks. Fielding, 8 games at 3B, 2 errors.

- Simply sensational start.

Ronny Mo

Mauricio: 15 for 45, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 5 HRs, 13 RBIs, 4 walks, 10 Ks. Fielding, 11 games at SS, 2 errors.

- Almost as simply sensational.


Mark Vientos

Vientos: 13 for 41, 1 double, 4 HRs, 9 RBIs, 5 walks, 14 Ks. fielding…errorless 8 games at 1B, 3 games at 3B,2 errors.

- Very fine, but the Ks remain high.

Players receive Major League service time for each day spent on the 26-man roster or the Major League injured list. Important to players and clubs alike, service time is used to determine when players are eligible for arbitration as well as free agency.

Each Major League regular season consists of 187 days (typically 183 days prior to 2018), and each day spent on the active roster or injured list earns a player one day of service time. 

(Any player who violates MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program doesn't receive Major League Service during his suspension, unless his suspension is reduced by 20 or more games under the mitigation provision of the program.)

A player is deemed to have reached "one year" of Major League service upon accruing 172 days in a given year. Upon reaching six years of Major League service, a player becomes eligible for free agency at the end of that season (unless he has already signed a contract extension that covers one or more of his free-agent seasons).

All players with at least three (but less than six) years of Major League service time become eligible for salary arbitration, through which they can earn substantial raises relative to the Major League minimum salary. 

Additionally, MLB each year identifies the group of players that ended the prior season with between two and three years of Major League service and at least 86 days of Major League service in that season and designates the top 22% -- in terms of service time -- as arbitration eligible. 

Those in the top 22% -- "Super Two" players -- are also eligible for salary arbitration despite having less than three years of Major League service. The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement established a $50 million bonus pool for pre-arbitration players.

10 comments:

Mack Ade said...

What bothers me the most about this rule is the reverse logic

Let's not call someone up now when we need help so he has one more year of service in a year he may not be needed

Tom Brennan said...

I agree, Mack, it’s baloney that was a non-issue prior to free agency being instituted. You were ready, you got promoted.

Tom Brennan said...

Interesting that another top prospect, Kevin Parada, is 1 for 19 in caught stealings after just 4 games behind the plate in 2023. Not sure “interesting” is the right word.

Mack Ade said...

I'm working on my Minor League Weekly Update that will debut on Tuesday.

One of the things it does is highlight each day's top players stats.

Parada nowhere near making it yet nor is he showing the defensive skills needed to play pro ball someday.

I'm sure it will get better but, defensively, he may wind up as a DH projection.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's me.

But I just want this 2023 NYM season to be our brand new Championship season run, the talent is there. I know that we all want this same one exact thing. But there is no time to waste, nor games to forego just waiting.

I don't care if they are AAA players with two errors in ten or eleven games played at AAA, as long as they can hit for a decent enough batting average and provide true and consistent power. Defense follows along naturally with playing time and redundancy.

Look, the last really good Mets wave of player talent here was the Alonso, McNeil (who had the second highest seasonal batting average in Mets history in 2022 BTW), Nimmo, Guillorme, Syndergaard and deGrom.

It is time now for the next big NYM player personnel wave to happen.

Namely, Baty, Vientos, Mauricio, Butto (He goes tonight against Scranton), and perhaps one from the Eric Orze/Seth Elledge/Grant Hartwig relief pool. Go watch some April 13th recent video on these guys from the Syracuse Mets site.

Time truly is of essence.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes with excellent thoughts, comes a wiser alternative.

Here's mine...

Forget about spending a billion dollars on SP Shohei Ohtani and entering that bidding warfare of the absurd. He's 29 years old this July, and he and his agent will want a ridiculously long contract term most likely taking him into age 55. Instead go with a Japanese pitcher like...

Roki Sasaki

21 year old sensational right-handed starter. Smooth like silk. Twenty-one!

Sasaki's average splitter velocity is 91-93 mph. His splitter is like Jacob deGrom's slider was and he uses it as an effective secondary pitch that's like many other Major League pitchers' fastballs.

Go watch some video on youtube and see for yourself.

Moral of this story.

You don't have to have the largest player personnel payroll to be the very best team in MLB.

Think about it at least.

Woodrow said...

It’s early, in both tripleA and. The bigs. Let’s we what happens in the next two weeks.

Tom Brennan said...

My thoughts on “early” is weather almost always suppresses offense, and despite this week’s warmth, the first week was COLD. Yet these 3 are sizzling. I think 2 more weeks will only make the evidence more emphatic.

Rds 900. said...

At the very least bring up Baty and release Locastro. EE can be a super sub.

Tom Brennan said...

Ray, he already is a super sub…super sub-par. But yes, I would immediately do that.