Secondary (40-Man) Rosters

Some leagues also have a what is known as a secondary roster. The secondary roster allows teams to sign additional backup players who are eligible to be placed on the active roster when slots are available. This gives teams roster flexibility over the course of a season. In professional baseball, the secondary roster typically holds 40 players, and so it is often referred to as the '40-man roster.' The secondary roster is also visible by default in the top right corner of the Transactions page.

Teams with no affiliated minor league teams, and minor league teams themselves, do not not have secondary rosters. Instead, they have reserve rosters.

Secondary Roster Limits

The size of the secondary roster in OOTP defaults to 40, but can be customized in the Roster Rules section of the Rules page during game creation, or after game creation by navigating to OOTP Menu | Game Setup | League Setup tab | Rules tab. The secondary roster can be set to any number greater than or equal to the active roster limit, up to a maximum of 70. You can also disable the secondary roster entirely. Remember, teams in leagues without affiliated teams have reserve rosters instead of secondary rosters.

When considering your league setup, your secondary roster should always be at least a few spots larger than the active roster. To do otherwise defeats the purpose of having a secondary roster.

Note: Even if you set your secondary roster to a number other than 40, some pages in the game still refer to the '40-man roster.'

About Secondary Rosters

The secondary roster is a superset of the active roster. Any player on your active roster must also be on your secondary roster. With the default values of 25 for the active roster and 40 for the secondary roster, a team has 15 extra roster slots for flexibility. The relationship between active and secondary rosters can be displayed like this:

Who Goes on the Secondary Roster?

There are numerous rules about which players can or must be on the secondary roster, as follows:

• Any player on the active roster must also be on the secondary roster.
• Any player with a major league contract must be placed on the secondary roster, unless they have cleared waivers and been assigned to the minor leagues
• Any player acquired by trade or waiver claim who was on his previous team's secondary roster must also be placed on the acquiring team's secondary roster.

If, after this, you still have slots available on your secondary roster, they can be filled with players who have minor league contract. Players on the secondary roster who are not on the active roster are assigned to one of the minor league teams in the organization.

Reasons for Placing Players on the Secondary Roster

As mentioned above, players with major league contracts must be on the secondary roster. But what about those remaining slots? Why would you put a minor league player onto the secondary roster? There are several reasons:

• Rule 5 Draft protection - One big reason for placing a player on the secondary roster is the Rule 5 draft. Players on the secondary roster cannot be selected in the Rule 5 draft, and therefore the secondary roster is used to 'protect' talented young players who are not quite ready for the major leagues.
• Minor league free agency - In addition, if minor league free agency is enabled, any player who has a certain number of years of professional service time (the default is six years) who is not on the secondary roster can elect to become a free agent at the end of the season. Placing these players on the secondary roster prevents them from becoming free agents.

Injuries and the Secondary Roster

Players who were on the secondary roster, and who were subsequently placed on the 15-day disabled list due to injury, must remain on the secondary roster.

Players who were on the secondary roster, and who were subsequently placed on the 60-day disabled list due to injury, are removed from the secondary roster.

In other words, players on the 15-day disabled list still count toward your secondary roster limit. Players on the 60-day disabled list do not.

Removing Players from the Secondary Roster

A team wanting to remove a player from the secondary roster must first place the player on waivers. If the player clears waivers, the player can then be sent to the minors. Doing this is called 'outrighting' the player to the minors. If a player has five years of major league service time, he can also elect to refuse assignment to the minors. If this happens, you must either keep the player on the secondary roster, or release him, paying any remaining salary.

The steps to remove a player from the secondary roster are as follows:

1. Waive the player and designate him for assignment. You can do this by right-clicking on the player and selecting Transactions > Waive & Designate for Assignment. This will remove him from the secondary roster immediately. (In real life, players are required to clear irrevocable waivers before they can be removed from the secondary roster. OOTP only requires revocable waivers in this situation, unless the player is out of options.)
2. If the player clears waivers, you can attempt to assign him to the minors by dragging him from the designated for assignment area to the minor league roster in the Transaction page. However, at this point if he has enough service time, he could refuse the assignment! If he does, you will be forced to either release him, trade him, or place him back on the secondary roster.

Note: In real life, teams can outright a player only once before the player has a choice. If the team outrights him a second time, the player can refuse assignment to the minors and elect to become a free agent. This rule does not exist in OOTP.

Contract Implications of Removing Players from the Secondary Roster

When a team signs a player to a major league deal, he is placed on the secondary roster. If he then is outrighted or otherwise demoted, his contract remains intact, and he is still paid his major league salary despite being in the minor leagues. If the player refuses the assignment, and is released, the team must pay him the remainder of the money in his contract. In real life, if a player refuses a minor league assignment, he can become a free agent and forfeit the remainder of his contract. This is not the case in OOTP.

Drawbacks of Putting Minor Leaguers on the Secondary Roster

When a player is placed on the secondary roster but doesn't end up on the active roster, he is considered to be on 'optional assignment,' using up one of his three minor league option years.

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Next page: Expanded Rosters