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2.2 Postseason Rules and Structure
3.1 Player Trades
3.2.2 Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI)
3.2.4 The Blue Rule
3.5 Rule 5 Draft
3.6 SPBC (Indy League) Player Purchases
4.1.1 Penalties for Salary Cap Violations
4.2 Face of the Franchise Rule
4.3.1 Staff Rating Customization (Scouts & Trainers)
4.3.2 Stadium Modifications
League Caretaker / Commissioner – Serves as the primary authority for league operations, ensuring smooth gameplay, rule enforcement, and overall management. Responsibilities include maintaining the Slack workspace, website, hosting expenses, league rulebook, recruiting, primary game simulation, and onboarding new GMs. While advisory input is welcomed from league members and the Competition Committee, the Commissioner has the final say in all league matters.
Deputy Commissioner – Serves as the second-in-command and steps in only if the Commissioner is unavailable. The Deputy Commissioner is an active participant in league governance but does not have independent decision-making authority unless acting in the Commissioner’s absence.
Competition Committee – An advisory panel that provides insights and recommendations to the Commissioner. The committee is responsible for understanding the rulebook, assessing how rules impact the league, and anticipating the implications of potential changes. While it does not have direct rule-making authority, it serves as a critical resource for informed decision-making regarding league policies. Members are expected to have a deep understanding of the league’s rules and their practical applications.
Caretaker GM - When a GM leaves the league, the Commissioner will assign a Caretaker GM to ensure the organization is not operated by the AI. In most cases, the Commish will serve as the Caretaker GM, though any willing and approved GM may be appointed.
The primary responsibility of a Caretaker GM is to operate the organization in good faith as if it were their own, with the goal of maintaining competitive integrity and organizational stability until a permanent replacement is found. Caretaker GMs should act conservatively, particularly with respect to trades. Trading away prospects or long-term assets is strongly discouraged unless the return is clearly substantial and defensible.
Caretaker GMs may not use the AI to manage the minor league system or to sign free agents. All roster moves should be made manually and with restraint.
A Caretaker GM may not negotiate or complete trades with their own organization, nor may they use the caretaker role to benefit their own team in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, releasing or waiving players from the caretaker organization for the purpose of signing or claiming them with their own team. Such actions constitute a serious cheating violation and are fundamentally incompatible with PBC values.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Responsible for the league’s technical infrastructure, including maintaining the website, hosting services, and ensuring the functionality of league-related tools. The CTO ensures a seamless experience for league members and maintains a professional presence for recruitment and rule reference.
StatsPlus Admin-Only – Manages administrative tasks within StatsPlus without engaging in broader league governance or rule discussions.
Founder, League Caretaker and Commissioner: Joe Peters
Deputy Commissioner(s): None
Competition Committee: Joe Peters, Chris (TOR), Corey (PHI), Keven (SF), Leo (STL)
Chief Technology Officer: Kevin R
StatsPlus Admins: Joe Peters, Chris (TOR), Keven (SF)
Caretaker GMs: Joe Peters, Chris (TOR), Keven (SF)
If GMs don't fulfill their responsibilities, commissioners will intervene. Consequences may include warnings, AI re-organizations, suspension, or expulsion at a last resort.
GM’s are responsible for…
Understanding Game Mechanics – GMs should have a basic understanding of how OOTP functions. While expertise is not required, proactive learning is expected. The OOTP wiki is a great resource. Note: The PBC rulebook is not an OOTP guide. it covers league-specific rules, not universal game mechanics.
OOTP Updating/Upgrading – The league will always upgrade to the latest OOTP version once it is deemed safe. This includes patches and yearly releases. Some league members, including the commissioner, participate in the OOTP beta team, ensuring informed upgrade decisions. If you have concerns about annual upgrades, contact the commissioner immediately.
Regularly Exporting – Exporting in advance of each simulation is required. The export tracker shows a historical export percentage. Even if you don’t have any changes, export so your history shows that you are an active member. It is ok to miss a few sims, but once a few consecutive sims are missed, a formal inquiry will be made. You may also be contacted if your overall export rate is lower than normal. Refer to chapter 1.5 for info on missed exports.
Reading the Announcements – The #commish-announcements channel in Slack is updated daily. It is important to check it regularly for sim notes, sim schedules, and important announcements.
Responding to Slack/email – GMs must respond to messages in a timely manner. Private messages should be answered within 24 hours. Ignoring messages is unacceptable and may result in removal. If you receive an email, it is usually a last attempt to contact you. At that point, the league is likely already considering a replacement.
Voting in Polls – Participating in league polls is required. Polls impact league operations and will be posted in Slack. Voting for season awards and the Hall of Fame is also strongly encouraged. These activities help bring fictional leagues to life. If you are not interested in participating, an online league may not be the right fit.
Be Social – Engage and connect! Online leagues are all about being social. In a league of our size, it's evident when some members stay silent. It's more enjoyable when everyone knows one another, but that's hard when only a few join the general chat. Being active demonstrates your commitment to the league.
Communicating Absences (Vacations) – If you will be absent from Slack or unable to export for over 48 hours, inform the commissioner or update your Slack status with your absence duration. We can't assume you're active if we're unaware of your absence.
Acting Professionally – All GM’s are expected to conduct themselves appropriately and professionally at all times. This includes your attitude toward other players as well as the management of your organization; all GM’s are expected to do their best to put a competitive team together as soon as possible. All players should be respectful towards each other. This includes harassment of any kind. If someone is harassing you, please report it to the commissioner. Harassment and bullying will not be tolerated in this league.
Protect Competitive Integrity – Every GM must protect league integrity by applying honest competitive strategies. Intentionally making your team uncompetitive by agreeing to one-sided trades, releasing good players, or even regularly starting obvious non-major league caliber players is not an honest competitive strategy. Also, devising ways to “game the system” is not keeping true to the spirit of competitive integrity. Some of the most prevalent ways a GM violates this is through bogus contract options and using the sim system against an opponent. If you have a concern about if something you want to do is considered “gaming the system”, please ask a commish. Your strategy will not be revealed if it’s determined to be ok.
Note for GMs: All GMs are expected to have a basic grasp of baseball rules, OOTP mechanics, and PBC regulations. Any issues caused by a lack of knowledge will be the GM’s responsibility. If you have questions, ask any one of us. We understand there is a learning curve, but it is your responsibility to stay informed and engaged with the league.
The practice of releasing a player and immediately re-signing that same player during the same sim cycle in order to restructure a contract, avoid free agency timing rules, or otherwise bypass existing roster and extension restrictions is prohibited.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Such actions violate the Protect Competitive Integrity clause in Section 1.3 and may be reversed at the Competition Committee’s discretion.
The PBC encourages open discussion, feedback, and differing viewpoints. Constructive suggestions, disagreement with league decisions, and thoughtful criticism are all welcome and are a normal part of league operations.
However, public channels should remain constructive. Repeated public complaints, arguments, or antagonistic exchanges that create a negative environment may be moderated by the Commissioner. The intent of this rule is not to censor discussion, but to prevent public bickering and prolonged negativity that can harm the overall league atmosphere.
If a GM has an issue with another member, a rule, or a league decision, the matter should be addressed privately with the other party or with the Commissioner. Concerns and suggestions are encouraged, but they should be raised in a manner that keeps public channels focused on league activity.
GMs should not attempt to police public channels themselves. If a post appears to violate league expectations, the appropriate action is to notify the Commissioner privately so the matter can be reviewed.
The Commissioner reserves the right to remove posts that do not meet these expectations. Removal of a post should not be interpreted as a rejection of the underlying concern, only as a decision that the discussion should take place outside the public channel.
This league transitions to the latest OOTP version annually, but only after confirming its stability. Members should be prepared for these yearly upgrades and must be committed to participating in the league beyond a single version. If a member is not willing to engage with the league through multiple versions, this league may not be the right fit.
The PBC has a strict policy regarding roster violations and exports. Roster violations halt the sim, and the simmer has to take an action in order to advance the sim. Exporting with violations is inexcusable, as the game will warn you that you have a violation when exporting.
If daily exports aren't feasible for you, aim for every other day. Given that each sim spans 5 days and our season is shorter, missing consecutive exports can significantly impact the season.
Failing to export for 4 consecutive sims may lead to an AI re-organization. While this isn't an automatic action, if your organization suffers due to missing nearly 3 in-game weeks of exports, intervention may be necessary. Note: This only applies during spring training and the regular season.
The action that the commish will take if a sim is halted will depend on the circumstance and it's not feasible to list every instance. We will list some common violations
Over roster limit:
Commish will DFA a player of his choosing to get the roster below the limit. The commish should pick a player with limited value, but shouldn't spend more than a few seconds doing this.
It should be noted that this fix will only be done if there's just a couple players over. If there appears to be neglect, usually by not exporting on opening day, then a full AI re-org will be done.
DFA time expired:
Players will be released if their DFA period expires and the player remains unassigned. However, the commissioner may, at their discretion, assign the player if there is available roster space and the player is either somewhat noteworthy or has a high salary. The commish may make this extra effort to prevent the release of a good player, but the burden is still on the GM.
If you anticipate missing several exports, please communicate in advance. A GM missing three consecutive exports typically receives an email from the commissioner inquiring about their status. A response is expected within 24-48 hours on Slack, our primary communication platform. Failing to respond in that window may lead to the assumption that the GM has disengaged from the league.
While email communication may occur, by the time it's sent, the process to find a replacement might have already been initiated. Hence, immediate responses on Slack are crucial. The commissioner will assess a GM's past activity and the league's overall standing before deciding on a replacement.
It is important to note that even GMs who consistently export or are active on Slack may still be replaced if their behavior negatively impacts the league. This includes contributing to a toxic environment, consistently missing crucial exports, neglecting important polls, disregarding commissioner guidance, or engaging in other disruptive actions. The health of the league remains a priority.
See chapters 4.1.1 for salary cap violations and 3.2.4 for Blue Rule violations.
The Pro Baseball Circuit (PBC) features two sub-leagues, no divisions, 12 teams in each.
Below the PBC are 6 minor leagues, with various roster and age limitations. The levels are the PBC Reserve League One, Reserve League Two, Advanced Prospect League, Prospect League, Rookie College League, and Rookie Complex League. Each organization also has an International Complex. No games are played at the International Complex, so development is minimal. Other than the international complex, PBC and all its affiliates play an 88-game schedule.
Separate from the PBC league structure are the Semi-Pro and Amateur leagues. These leagues function as independent leagues and players may be acquired by PBC GMs. See the chapter 3.6 for details.
Each GM is responsible for keeping up to date with his/her minor league affiliates. This includes promotions/demotions, lineup and rotation changes, releases and signings, etc. AI assistance with some (or all) of these tasks can be setup in-game by changing the settings in the "Manager Options" screen on the GM Home Page, however it is recommended to handle all of this manually as you will generally find more success. Caution: Commissioners will not "fix" any decisions made by the AI when using those options. Use them at your own risk!
GMs must maintain adequate rosters across all levels of their organization. Each team must carry at least 22 active players, including a minimum of 9 pitchers and 12 hitters, with at least 2 catchers among the hitters.
Two-way players do not satisfy both requirements and may only be counted toward one role for roster compliance.
Players with minimal or moderate day-to-day injuries, or injuries expected to resolve within the next one or two sims, may be counted; all other injured players do not count toward roster minimums.
If a ML team or affiliate does not meet the minimum roster requirements prior to a sim, the Commissioner may take necessary actions to bring the organization into compliance.
Bottom line: To avoid commissioner intervention, GMs should always ensure their rosters remain compliant.
The highest level of each PBC organization is its Major League (ML) team. At this level, teams are limited to a maximum of 22 players on the active roster. A typical roster construction consists of 9 pitchers and 13 hitters
PBC Reserve Leagues
The reserve leagues comprise Reserve League One (AAA) and Reserve League Two (AA). Each team has an active player limit of 26. There are no age or experience restrictions at this level.
PBC Prospect Leagues
The prospect leagues comprise the Advanced Prospect League (A+) and the Prospect League (A). Players aged 24 and older are ineligible for either league. A+ has a roster limit of 30 players.
PBC Rookie Leagues
The rookie leagues comprise the Rookie College League (R+) and the Rookie Complex League (R). Players aged 21 and older are ineligible for the Rookie College League, while players aged 20 and older are ineligible for the Rookie Complex League.
Age eligibility is verified only on Opening Day, as OOTP will prevent GMs from assigning players to ineligible leagues.
International Complex
Players signed as international amateur free agents (IAFA) or international scouting discoveries will be placed in the International Complex. Your scout will discover up to sixteen (default setting) international amateurs each year. This level doesn't have competitive matches and offers limited player growth.
Players in the complex are not required to be placed on a minor league roster until they reach one (1) professional year. However, the commish may move players from the complex to the minor leagues to fix minimum roster violations during the season.
If a player earns one professional year and has not been promoted, the commish will move them to your Rookie Complex when official preseason begins.
The PBC postseason begins at the end of the regular season, featuring the top 4 teams from each league to compete for the Professional Circuit Cup. All three rounds are best-of-7 series using the HH-AAA-HH format.
The PBC Postseason includes the top four teams from each league. Playoff seeding is based on total wins.
The first round, also known as the play-in series, features the four playoff teams in each league. The winners of the two play-in series will advance to the Cup Qualifier series. The Pro Circuit Cup Series concludes with a showdown between the winners of each league’s qualifier series.
No additional tiebreaker games are scheduled. Tiebreaker 1 is the season series record between the tied teams. Tiebreaker 2 is season run differential. Tiebreaker 3, if ever necessary, will be determined by the Commissioner at the time of the tie and will establish precedent for future third-level tiebreakers.
During the regular season and offseason, the league operates on a single daily sim at a consistent time, with daily exports required from all teams. The postseason operates differently.
Only teams actively participating in a given playoff round are required to export. Once all required exports are received, the sim may begin immediately at any time of day. It is entirely possible for the entire postseason to be completed in a single day.
To avoid unnecessary delays, the Commissioner will generally follow a structured fallback sim cadence during the postseason. These times are not fixed and may be adjusted based on context, availability, or playoff circumstances. Any postseason sim timing announced in #commish_announcements supersedes the guidelines below.
Round 1 (Play-In Round) moves on at 7pm, 9pm, and 11pm ET
Subsequent Rounds (Cup Qualifier and Pro Circuit Cup) moves on at 7am, 7pm, and 9pm ET
This schedule represents a worst-case pacing scenario. The league will always sim sooner when possible. If all required exports or instructions are received, the sim will proceed immediately rather than waiting for a listed time.
Start offering personnel extensions before the regular season ends. The interval between the end of the regular season and the start of the offseason can be very short, sometimes limited to a single evening if playoff teams are responsive. Plan accordingly.
Note for the commish: Extend waivers so that they span the entire postseason.
For reference, the playoff sim blocks are structured as follows:
Congratulations on making the playoffs. Because the sim schedule now revolves around a small number of teams, a higher level of responsiveness is expected.
Export As Soon As Possible
Playoff teams are expected to export promptly after a new file is posted. The listed sim times are not a signal to wait; they exist solely to prevent the league from stalling due to silence.
Use Instructions When Needed
If you cannot export in a timely manner, leave clear instructions so the league can continue moving. Instructions are always preferable to silence.
Communicate Early and Clearly
When a new file is posted, playoff teams should immediately communicate their status. If you do not plan to export, a simple confirmation is sufficient. Lack of communication forces the Commissioner to guess, which slows everyone down.
Be Responsive
Multiple sims per day are normal during the postseason. While not everyone can export multiple times in one evening, timely responses are expected. Extended periods without communication may result in the sim proceeding without your export.
Clear and timely communication is the single most important factor in completing the postseason efficiently.
If a playoff sim lands on a weekend morning, the goal is to complete the entire postseason that same day. If it lands on a weekday morning, expect multiple sims that evening with the remainder completed the following day.
While the league does not operate on a single fixed postseason export time, timely exports or clear instructions are required. If a playoff team has not exported or communicated within a reasonable window, the Commissioner will proceed with the sim to avoid delaying the league.
The Pro Baseball Circuit runs a unique structure for its league operations that promotes competitiveness and parity. Team's budgets are derived from the standard league-wide media contracts. Ticket prices are locked at a fixed price of $1.00, but attendance drives the ability for team budgets to fluctuate upward or downward depending the on the team's success at earning attendance.
Budgets are typically in the range of $14-16 million for player salaries, IAFA signings, coaching salaries, scouting and player development budgets. In the PBC universe players generally can't get contract extensions to ensure all teams have a fair shot at acquiring talent. The exceptions are those designated as the Face of the Franchise. This financial model guarantees that free agency is always buzzing with excitement. With players entering free agency, teams race to secure top talent, making each free agency period a thrilling, can't-miss event.
The PBC does not have player arbitration, therefore causing players on their rookie contracts to maintain the minimum salary of $100,000 through 5 years of service before entering free agency. (See 3.2.2 Prospect Promotion Incentive)
The league will continue to monitor key financial indicators such as fan interest, attendance, and overall team finances. When multiple teams achieve fan interest levels consistently in the 90s, the commissioner will reduce each team's fan interest by 25 points and increase the baseline attendance by 5,000. This approach supports the natural growth of attendance, encouraging GMs to monitor fan interest closely as it can continue to rise. A cap on attendance baseline may be introduced if needed, but this will only be considered after significant growth over several decades.
Additional adjustments to the financial structure, including player salary expectations or budget baselines, may be made when deemed necessary. All changes will be thoroughly tested prior to implementation to ensure financial balance and competitiveness across the league.
Each team will have a minimum budget of $14 million per season to allow $10 million for players, $1 million for development, $1 million for scouting, $1 million for international free agents, and $1 million for staff.
Once all team budgets exceed $14 million, the baseline allocations for development and scouting will increase accordingly. The goal is for these baseline expenses to grow in proportion to the overall team budgets, ensuring balance across key areas of spending.
Attendance Baseline per Game: 25,000
Ticket Price Baseline: $1.0 (Teams cannot change ticket price)
Visiting Team's Gate Share: 0%
Yearly Inflation: No current plans
Minimum Days of Service for One Service Year: 100
Minimum Service Years for Free Agency: 5 Years (500 days)
Minimum Pro Years for Minor League FA: No minor league free agency
Salary Arbitration: Disabled
Draft Pick Compensation for Lost Free Agents: No Compensation
Allow Contract Opt-Outs: Disabled
Minimum Contract Buyout Amount: 50%
Player Dev. Budget Baseline: $1.250M
Scouting Budget Baseline: $1.250M
Coach Salary Baseline: $80k
Player Typical Salaries (multiple levels):
These settings establish the typical salary figure for players of differing caliber. These values are used by the computer in a number of areas of the game, such as computer GMs determining contract offers and players assessing the value of an offer. The eight categories of players are superstar, star, good, above average, average, below average, fair, and poor.
The commissioner may adjust these settings before the start of free agency to maintain a healthy and realistic market environment. Any adjustment will be thoroughly tested prior to implementation. Minor changes will not typically be announced
Contract Years Maximum: 5 years
Contract Extensions: Prohibited
Minor league players will not enter free agency unless they are released or have previously earned 5 ML service years.
National Media Contract Baseline: $14.0M
National Media Contract Fixed?: Yes, same contract for every team
Local Media Contract Baseline: $0
Merchandising Revenue Baseline: $0
Team Owner Controls Budget?: No, entire revenue available
Revenue Sharing: Disabled
Luxury Tax: Disabled
Cash Maximum: None
League minimum salaries (100K) do not count against the salary cap.
See chapter 4.1 for complete salary cap rules.
The salary cap setting is disabled in OOTP, but still enforced. See Section 4.1.3 for details.
Scouting Settings
Player Rating Scales
Coaching Settings
During the offseason, coaches may receive and accept offers from other teams, often with little or no opportunity for the original team to counter. In real life, organizations usually have the right to respond or block coaching moves, but promotions are almost always permitted. In solo play, a user can respond immediately to those offers, but in an online league environment, sim schedules naturally advance past those short windows. This means the opportunity to counter often happens between sims, which is why those moves sometimes appear instant.
Some have suggested disabling coach poaching altogether, but that would actually make things less realistic. In professional baseball, coaches frequently move between organizations, especially when taking on a higher-level role. Preventing that movement would freeze the coaching market and remove a natural layer of career progression that reflects how the sport really works. Good coaches are meant to rise through the system, not remain buried in low levels indefinitely.
To reduce the risk of losing valued staff, GMs should proactively manage their coaching personnel by offering contract extensions before the season ends or promoting coaches internally once openings arise. These steps keep coaches satisfied with their current position and less likely to entertain outside offers.
Losing a coach is not a personal slight and should be viewed as a normal part of the coaching carousel. Simply find a suitable replacement and move forward. Coaches ultimately play a limited role in overall team success, and turnover is a natural and expected element of the game.
Report Settings: Top Prospect List: Dynamic
Storylines: On (Career ending injuries and storyline retirements are disabled)
Player Injury, Fatigue, & Suspensions
Player Personality Settings: All turned on
Player Development Settings: Default (except Dev Lab success magnitude is set at higher, and player development focus is disabled)
Allow Potential to Influence Minor League Results: Default (On)
There are primary settings for the PBC league. If you're curious what the specific league settings are for the SPBC, ask a commish.
Note for Commish:
There should never be a “free waivers” period; this means that if a sim is supposed to be longer than the waiver length, such as during the offseason, the waiver length must be extended such that it is at least one day greater that the sim length.During offseason sims that exceed the max waiver time setting, the commish will have to manually set each each newly waived player's time so it doesn't expire before the sim finishes
Players will be released if their DFA period expires and the player remains unassigned. However, the commissioner may, at their discretion, assign the player if there is available roster space and the player is either somewhat noteworthy or has a high salary.
Note for GMs: Trades are always processed before the sim. GMs should leave instructions so that any resulting roster changes keep all teams within the required roster limits (see Section 2.1.1). For detailed guidelines on submitting instructions, refer to Chapter 3.1.
Note for commish: After the playoffs conclude, but before the offseason rollover, set the start of the offseason event date to October 30. Failing to do so will mess with dev lab timelines
With the league’s expansion from 18 to 24 teams, the number of players generated per draft round increased significantly. To avoid an excessive influx of amateur players in a single season, the Amateur Draft was temporarily reduced to 20 rounds.
Beginning with the 2024 season, the number of players generated for the Amateur Draft will increase incrementally by one round each season. This phased approach allows the amateur talent pool to scale gradually as the league stabilizes at 24 teams. Once the generated player pool reaches 25 rounds, the Amateur Draft will return to its standard 25-round format.
At the start of the offseason, PBC GMs have the opportunity to vote for end-of-season awards in OOTP, including all standard player awards. The only exception is the Veteran's Award, which is a custom award managed manually.
The Veteran's Award is given to the best player who meets at least one of the following criteria:
Since OOTP does not support custom voting criteria, this award is tracked manually. However, voting for it still takes place within the OOTP platform.
We do not utilize StatsPlus for awards or hall of fame voting.
Trades are essential in any online OOTP league. To truly succeed, mastering the art of trading is key. In the PBC, you can signal your trading intentions in three effective ways: by using the in-game trade block, posting in the "trades" Slack channels, or directly messaging GMs about potential deals. Sometimes, the best trades involve unexpected players. However, being transparent about your available players can be advantageous for you.
GMs are encouraged to be creative when negotiating trades. Unless explicitly restricted in the sections below, all trade structures are permitted.
For example, a team may draft a player in the Rule 5 Draft, then arrange to release that player back to their original team, followed by a separate trade to reacquire the player thereby bypassing the Rule 5 active roster requirement through strategic negotiation.
Teams are permitted to retain salary in trades under the following conditions, modeled after the NHL system to promote realism, flexibility, and cap integrity:
Retention Limit per Player: A team may retain up to 50% of a player’s remaining contract. The retained portion counts against the retaining team’s salary cap.
Retention Limit per Team: A team may have no more than three retained-salary contracts on its books at any one time.
Retention Limit per Contract: A single contract may only involve retained salary in two trades total. This prevents excessive stacking of retained salary across multiple teams.
Salary retention is prohibited if the player is being traded back to a team that previously traded him during the same contract term. In other words, teams may not retain salary as part of a “trade-back” on the same contract. This prevents teams from using reciprocal trades to artificially reduce salary obligations or cap impact.
This structure allows rebuilding teams more flexibility, encourages creative trade strategies, and maintains the competitive balance of the league’s salary cap system.
Trades will only be between two organizations and may include up to 10 players from either side and/or cash. All players in a PBC organization are eligible to be traded. Players in the international complex must be promoted prior to the trade and they cannot return to a complex.
Coaches, draft picks, and players on irrevocable waivers are not eligible to be traded.
Foot stomp: DO NOT waive players that you trade. The trade will NOT process if a player is on waivers.
However, in practice, a trade can still go through if the player was waived and traded in the same export, because waivers won’t appear in-game until the commissioner imports all exports and updates the league file after advancing the calendar.
This creates a situation where the receiving GM won’t see the player on waivers, and the trade appears valid. While anyone can re-download the latest league file before the next sim and simply not waive the player, that workaround just to enable a trade is unnecessary.
Cash Interpretation: In OOTP, cash is essentially a budget modifier. If a team has a positive cash balance, their available money will increase by the amount of that positive cash balance. Similarly, if a team has a negative cash balance, their available money will decrease by the amount of that negative cash balance.
During trade negotiations, cash may be used up to when the available money reaches zero. This means that you can trade more cash than you currently possess because the extra cash comes out of your budget, which lowers your available money. This might complicate your trade as you may not be able to submit it in game. Contact a commish to ensure that the trade is able to be processed.
Salary caps violations are only checked pre-sim and only when games will be played. Since trades are processed post-sim, a team may go over the salary cap to complete a trade but must get under prior to the next salary cap check.
In the PBC, trades are built on mutual respect and trust between GMs. Once an agreement is reached, it is considered binding and must follow the league’s trade confirmation process.
Initial Agreement: Trades begin with a private agreement between two GMs. Once both parties confirm the details, the trade is considered final and binding. A change of heart after this point does not invalidate the agreement. If necessary, a GM may provide proof of the agreement to a commissioner to enforce the trade. However, trades may be canceled if both GMs mutually agree.
Trade Submission in StatsPlus (S+): After an agreement is reached, the trade must be posted in StatsPlus (S+). This is the first step in the league-wide review process, allowing other teams the opportunity to protest a trade if necessary. The official veto process is outlined in Section 3.1.3. If it is not possible to submit the trade through S+ for any reason, the GMs must post the full trade details in the #request-commish-action channel on Slack. This serves as an official record and ensures the trade is reviewed properly.
Trade Submission in OOTP: Once the trade has been posted in S+, both GMs must also submit and export the trade within OOTP. This ensures that the commissioner can process the trade efficiently and prevents unnecessary delays in updating the league file. If a GM is unable to export due to technical issues or other challenges, they must notify the commissioner as soon as possible.
Commissioner's Review: While the private agreement between GMs is considered binding, the commissioner will ensure that both GMs have exported their agreed trades in the system. If one GM couldn't export due to a valid reason but the agreement exists, the trade may still be processed after S+ confirmation.
Commitments made in private conversations are binding. A change of heart post-agreement doesn't invalidate the trade. If a GM provides proof of the agreement to a commish, the trade will be marked valid. Of course, trades may be cancelled if both GMs agree.
Trades will be processed before the sim by default. All GMs must leave instructions clearly stating where incoming players should be placed and/or who to call up to fill the active roster.
If a GM does not leave instructions and processing the trade would result in their roster falling below the 23 player requirement, the commissioner will make the necessary roster moves to keep teams compliant, as outlined in Section 2.1.1. Every effort will be made to make thoughtful, reasonable decisions but the best way to avoid commissioner intervention is to leave clear instructions. Bottom line, if you don’t want the commissioner making roster moves on your behalf, leave instructions with your trade. GMs remain responsible for any salary cap penalties resulting from this action.
If both GMs specifically prefer their trade to process after the sim, they must both clearly state that in their instructions.
If a trade remains unprocessed after a sim, it’s typically due to one of the following reasons:
The trade was not submitted in OOTP. Trades must be submitted in-game to be processed. Exceptions may be made in cases where an OOTP limitation prevents submission (e.g., a player is in the international complex) or if a GM had already submitted their final export before the trade was finalized.
Trade irregularities. Trades that violate league rules or are formatted in a way that prevents quick processing may be held back until clarified or corrected.
The league update will not be delayed while two GM's debate an unprocessed trade.
Any unprocessed trades will be highlighted in the sim announcement for awareness only and isn't meant as public criticism.
Trades in this league are generally allowed to proceed without intervention. While some trades may be perceived as unbalanced, we prioritize GM autonomy and do not veto trades except in specific situations. However, if a trade meets one of the following criteria, it may be subject to review by the Competition Committee:
Protesting a Trade
Trade Processing and Timing Considerations
Competition Committee Review
Statute of Limitations on Protests
The PBC deadline for trading players will always be September 2nd of each in-game year.
NOTE: The trade deadline is a hard time of the export deadline posted by the commissioner in the sim announcement post. Trades must be exported, or confirmed if required, before the deadline time or they will not be processed. Invalid trades are not allowed to be renegotiated past the deadline. This hard deadline time was established to simulate the deadline that real GMs face.
However, if the simmer is late, then all trades confirmed and exported before the simmer imports will be processed.
What is it: In OOTP, players may be offered a no-trade clause (NTC) during contract negotiations. But this can pose challenges if you later decide to trade the player. Remember, a player's choice to invoke their NTC or 10/5 right will always be respected and cannot be overridden.
Trading players with an NTC: If two GMs agree to a trade involving a player with an NTC, and the player's destination team is listed as one he would accept a trade to, the trade will proceed as planned even if the player changes his mind after the sim. However, the complete deal must have been finalized prior to the sim.
3-way Trades with NTC: Although OOTP cannot directly process 3-way trades, three GMs can still coordinate one. For example, if Denver’s Jake Sullivan will only accept a trade to Dallas, and Dallas’s Alex Mendoza will only accept a trade to Vegas, the GMs can work out a deal where Vegas sends players to Denver, allowing Sullivan to move to Dallas and Mendoza to Vegas. In cases like this, as long as the NTC conditions are met for each player, the trade will proceed.
NTC Transparency: The list of teams a player with an NTC will accept a trade to is not, and should not be, considered private information. In real life, GMs are fully aware of these details, and it's unrealistic for that information to be hidden in OOTP. I’ve submitted a standing request to the developers to improve transparency around NTCs.
Until then, the commissioner can see these lists and will provide them upon request. If you want to know the teams a player will accept a trade to, simply ask in #request-commish-action, and I’ll share them publicly. Note that the lists are dynamic and may change daily.
It is legal to waive a player with an NTC in an attempt to provoke them into waiving their NTC. It should be noted that GMs may agree to trade for a player on irrevocable waivers, but the trade will not be processed until after the player clears waivers. Other GMs, including the one trading for that player, may, of course, claim the player before the trade can be processed.
Player loans exist purely as a developmental tool, giving prospects opportunities for playing time in another organization when they are blocked internally. Loans function as trades with the understanding that the player will return to their original team at an agreed-upon time.
Eligibility:
A player is eligible for a loan only if all of the following are true:
Any player who does not meet all of these conditions is not eligible for a loan. These restrictions ensure loans are used strictly for prospect development and cannot be used to shift Major League talent or bypass waivers.
Timing:
Loan Agreement Requirements:
Before a player is loaned, both GMs must agree on:
These terms must be clearly included in the trade post.
Usage Notes: Loaned players are treated as part of the borrowing team’s organization for competitive purposes. If a player remains in your organization through the end of the season, they are eligible for postseason play; this is simply the standard roster rule.
Face of the Franchise Implications: Since loans are processed as trades, any loaned player immediately loses eligibility for FoF status.
Note for all GMs: All players that are on the free agent list are eligible to be signed at any time!
Service Day on Opening Day: A player on the major league roster at the game’s turnover to Opening Day does not receive a service day. Service days are only accrued once Opening Day is simmed forward.
International free agents who sign Major League contracts will enter the league with 5 years of Major League service time. This prevents those players from being subject to automatic renewals once their Major League contract expires and aligns their service-time treatment with traditional Major League free agents.
Any international free agent who appears on the top free agents list at the start of free agency and is 27 or older will be edited to 25 years old.
The reasoning behind this is simple. Most international players signing with MLB teams after playing in foreign leagues are in their early-to-mid 20s, not already past their prime. This adjustment better reflects reality and ensures these players are entering free agency in their prime, rather than aging out too quickly.
Note for Commish: Add one year to the player's existing contract as a team option during the offseason after their 4th full season, once the contract auto-renews for their 5th season. However, this must be done before entering the offseason following their 5th full season.
Note for GM regarding note to Commish: If the player fails to earn a full service year in their 5th season, they wouldn’t be eligible for free agency anyway and would receive another auto-renewal, so there’s no need to wait until after the 5th full season to add the option.
Additional Note for Commish: Players who spend time on a minor league rehab assignment will not have that period counted as "less than a full season in the majors" for Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) eligibility. Since it is not always clear whether a stint in the minors is for rehab or an outright demotion, any player who accrues 500 Major League service days over 5 consecutive seasons will still qualify for the PPI.
GMs may offer a contract to any player at any time for any amount and without any limitations, with the exception of the Blue Rule (see chapter 3.2.3). However, any contract that is viewed by the rules committee as an attempt at "game or rules manipulation" will be edited to become fully guaranteed. In short, do not offer any contracts that you aren't willing to have fully guaranteed. If you have a legitimate concern about how a contract will be viewed, please ask someone in the league leadership.
The Blue Rule (IYKYK) was created to address tactics by GMs aiming to sidestep salary caps. Some GMs might offer a high final year salary intending to release the player that year, benefiting from lower initial years' salary impacts. To counteract this, we have established the following procedures:
Note: An escalating year is defined as a year in which the player's contract is higher than the previous year.
Illegal Contact example:
4-year, $6,000,000 contract signed in 2000
2000: $1,000,000
2001: $1,300,000
2002: $1,600,000
2003: $2,100,000
To use the above contract as an example, 1.0m/1.3m/1.6m/2.1m may be adjusted to 1.0m/1.3m/1.7m/2.0m .
If a restructure proves to be too difficult, the contract may be voided by a commish.
Blue Rule Contract Examples
In hopes of providing clarity on the Blue rule, here are some examples of contracts:
5-year contract signed in 1991
1991: $2,500,000
1992: $2,500,000
1993: $2,650,000 (Not more than 250k of the lowest individual year)
1994: $2,650,000
1995: $2,650,000
4 years contract signed in 1997
1997: $2,800,000
1998: $1,950,000 (Falls below $2.0m but does not rise back above $2.0m)
1999: $1,500,000
2000: $2,000,000
5-year contract signed in 1977
1977: $1,900,000
1978: $1,900,000
1979: $2,100,000
1980: $2,100,000
1981: $2,150,000 (Contract started below $2.0 so no value may be above $2.0m)
5-year contract signed in 1982
1982: $3,000,000
1983: $2,800,000
1984: $2,500,000
1985: $1,900,000
1986: $2,100,000 (Fell below $2.0m so no escalating year may be above $2.0m)
Any further clarification needed on the previous rule may be discussed privately with a commissioner.
Players that are waived by one team may be claimed by another within 8 "in-game" days (thus, players will appear on waivers for one sims). Players claimed from waivers must have their salaries assumed by the claiming team and are placed on that team's 35-man secondary roster if appropriate. Also, players that have been on waivers long enough to be claimed by a team, cannot be traded until they clear waivers.
NOTE: Waivers will always be at least one day greater than the length of one sim. This rule is to eliminate a "free waivers" period. Waiver lengths during the offseason and postseason may vary depending on sim length.
Note for Commish: After simming to Sep 27th, but before updating the file, extend the waiver length so it expires after the offseason begins but before free agency starts. 40 days would take it to Nov 4th. This adjustment accounts for the irregular sim schedule during the playoffs and ensures waivers function fairly during the transition into the offseason.
On day one of the offseason, waivers function a bit differently than usual.
Typically, waiver lengths are adjusted to ensure no player clears waivers during the same sim they were placed on waivers. This prevents a free waiver period. However, because we sim straight into free agency, a player claimed during this sim might still be on waivers when free agency opens. If that player isn’t on a 35-man roster, their contract won’t auto-renew which results in the claiming team acquiring them on a minor league deal without using a 35-man spot. That’s not fair to the waiving team or the player.
To address this, we allow "free waivers" between the start of the offseason and the beginning of free agency. During this window, any player placed on waivers will usually clear before the sim ends.
That said, players placed on waivers during this period are still technically eligible to be claimed, such as by an AI team. Waiving a player does not make them “safe.”
Lastly, players who clear waivers remain eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. Waiving every minor leaguer on your 35-man roster is not a smart strategy.
If a player is placed on waivers and the league day has not advanced, the waiving team may request to cancel the move and restore the player to the roster. This mirrors what happens when a GM waives a player, changes their mind, redownloads the league file, and re-exports which effectively erases the move.
For regular GMs, no one would ever see this happen because the waiver never officially exists in the league file. However, the commissioner cannot redownload the league file because his version is the source. If you ever see a transaction where a player was waived but is not actually on waivers, this is the reason.
Waiver reversals are only allowed if the league day has not advanced. Once a sim is run and the calendar moves forward, waivers are official and cannot be undone.
If a team claims a player off waivers and then immediately places that player back on waivers before he has spent at least one sim on their active ML roster, the player will be released and becomes a free agent. Note: This is hard to track, so I'll have to be alerted if someone sees this happen.
Real-World Rationale: In Major League Baseball, a player cannot be repeatedly outrighted without consequence. After a player has been outrighted once, he gains the right to reject future assignments and elect free agency. This prevents teams from continually cycling a player through waivers to stash him. Since OOTP does not model player consent or outright refusal, this rule replicates MLB’s intended effect by ensuring a claimed player cannot be immediately waived again without risk.
The amateur draft consists of 25 rounds and is conducted in two phases:
Phase One (Rounds 1–5): Conducted using the StatsPlus (S+) draft tool, beginning at the trade deadline. This early start allows ample time for teams to make thoughtful selections and ensures the most important picks receive proper attention.
Phase Two (Rounds 6–25): Completed in OOTP on the first day of the offseason. At that point, the commissioner manually inputs the results of Rounds 1–5 into the game, and teams use the in-game draft list feature to complete the remaining rounds.
This two-phase approach provides more flexibility than trying to complete the entire draft during the short window between preseason and June. It also allows teams the full offseason to manage their rosters following the draft, rather than scrambling to make adjustments in just a few days.
The draft will be held on October 30th each season. The draft pool will be revealed 150 days prior, on June 2, to allow for the standard 90-day scouting period in OOTP before the draft begins in S+ (Sep 2nd). We do not have the combine feature enabled as it is not optimized for online play.
The PBC draft order is determined through two separate draft lotteries; Lottery A includes the 10 teams with the most lottery balls, while Lottery B includes the 8 teams with the fewest lottery balls.:
The allocation of lottery balls is based on two factors: sub-league standings and overall league activity. For league standings, a weighted aggregate of the last 5 seasons is used, with a ratio of 4:4:3:2:1, giving the most recent season and the current the highest weight. This approach balances team performance over time and rewards consistent participation.
There are no tiebreakers for division standings when calculating draft lottery placement. If two or more teams are tied in the standings, each team will receive the lowest standing among those tied. For example, if Denver and Houston are tied for 5th place but occupy the 5th and 6th positions in the standings, both teams will be credited with a 6th place finish, while the 4th place team will remain unaffected.
Activity chances are a calculation successful exports and various other voting opportunities. The exact number of chances may vary from year to year. Ask a commish if you want a full breakdown for any given season. Typically, there will be 33 chances for exports and additional chances for league polls, awards, and Hall of Fame voting.
The formula for determining draft lottery odds is:
(Weighted Divisional Standing * 25) + ((Total League Activity Chances * Calculated Activity %) * X.XX)
X.XX means this formula may be adjusted slightly from year to year to ensure that, in practice, the maximum possible lottery balls are allocated such that 1/3 are based on activity and 2/3 are based on weighted divisional standings.
Calculated Activity Adjustments: GM's will not be penalized if they joined mid-season/offseason. The lotto formula uses a percentage instead of a total to account for this. If a GM has less than 5 activity chances and a percentage below 80%, the "Calc Act%" will be adjusted to 80%. If a GM had no activity chances, their percentage will reflect their team's previous GM's activity.
The draft lottery results will be revealed during a live stream using a proprietary draft lottery program written in Python 3. The program is open-source and available upon request.
The lottery will take place after the sim leading up to the trade deadline, and the results will apply to all rounds of the draft.
Rounds 1-5 will take place in StatsPlus using the draft tool. The time limit for each pick is 10 hours. If a team's draft time expires, they will be put on auto-pick in Stats+ and will remain on auto until the draft completes.
There is no "overnight pause" during the draft. We have league members all across the globe and a 10-hour timer covers a healthy night's rest regardless of where you are in the world.
Do not chastise or berate other GMs for using their allotted 10 hours to make selections; the time is theirs to use as needed. While GMs should still strive to make timely picks, their time is theirs to manage. Additionally, we will not consider shortening the draft timer to allow for more selections, as this would only encourage GMs with less time to opt for auto-picks, which undermines the purpose of this system.
Rounds 6-25 of the draft will be conducted in-game using the OOTP draft function. After simulating to the start of the offseason each year, the commissioner will manually input the draft results from StatsPlus and upload the new league file. GMs should then set their draft lists for rounds 6-25 or delegate this task to their assistant GM.
The following day, as the commissioner simulates to free agency, the draft will be completed using the draft lists that were set up in OOTP.
The purpose for this is that the S+ auto draft logic is abysmal. It does not account for previously drafted players or organizational strength, resulting in instances where teams draft 8 catchers in a row, for example. Using the in-game draft function ensures a much more effective back end of the draft.
The Rule 5 draft occurs every offseason, prior to the 3rd FA sim, and consists of a maximum of 2 rounds. The commissioner will announce the exact date for each offseason's draft.
Note for Commish: When the second waive of FA signings occurs, schedule the Rule 5 Draft for the following day, then advance the league one day. This must happen before the calendar year rolls over.
The Rule 5 draft will utilize the in-game draft feature. The draft order will follow the sequence provided by the game and will not be altered.
General Managers (GMs) have the option to protect eligible players by adding them to their 35-man roster.
Purpose: To maintain the integrity of the Rule 5 draft pool by preventing teams from adding players to their draft list who might be protected before the draft starts. This rule ensures a consistent and fair draft process, giving all teams an equal opportunity to select available players.
Rule: Rule 5-eligible players may not be added to a team's secondary (35-man) roster on the day of the Rule 5 draft.
Violation Consequence: Any player added to the secondary roster on Rule 5 draft day in violation of this rule will be immediately passed through waivers.
Repeated Violations: If a GM illegally adds players to the secondary roster on Rule 5 draft day for two consecutive seasons, their team will forfeit its Rule 5 draft picks for that season.
Note: Players who are signed from free agency or added to the roster via trade on the day of the Rule 5 draft are exempt from this mechanism.
Please avoid adding Rule 5-ineligible players to your 35-man roster on draft day. While it's not a violation, it can easily be mistaken for one, since it's difficult to confirm eligibility once a player is protected. This could lead to your player being incorrectly passed through waivers as part of a presumed violation.
Prior to the draft, the Commissioner may protect players in cases where it is clear that a team failed to protect a player who would ordinarily and reasonably be expected to be protected. These actions are intended to correct obvious oversights, not to re-evaluate or override a team’s scouting philosophy or player valuations. Any such protection is contingent upon available space on the 35-man roster.
In exceptional circumstances, the commissioner may exercise discretion to waive a low-value player to make room for a high-value player. For example, waiving a 2-star RP to protect a 4-star CF.
Warning for Commissioner: Do not select "Complete Draft". Upon reaching Round 3, skip all subsequent picks to conclude the draft.
In the draft following the 2005 season, 4 expansion teams participated, establishing the precedent that expansion teams may draft up to 10 rounds in the Rule 5 draft.
The Semi-Pro Baseball Circuit (SPBC) operates under the governance of the Professional Baseball Circuit (PBC) but consists of independent and unaffiliated baseball clubs competing at a semi-professional level.
The SPBC exists to give unsigned and overlooked players a place to continue playing rather than sitting in free agency. Its primary purpose is to keep players active and relevant within the game world.
A secondary benefit of the SPBC is that it allows PBC teams to identify and acquire players who can provide Major League or organizational depth or short term roster help. It is not intended to serve as a mechanism for acquiring prospects or stockpiling future assets.
A player is eligible for purchase from the SPBC only if all of the following conditions are met:
For purposes of this rule, a player is considered to have begun the season with prospect eligibility if they were listed in the SPBC prospect pipeline at any point during that season.
When Bidding is Allowed:
SPBC players may be bid on at any time and there is no fixed “bidding window". However, bids are only processed from the start of Spring Training through the trade deadline. All bids are processed pre-sim, before any in-game days advance.
Because processing occurs pre-sim, player eligibility is also determined pre-sim. If the player is not already eligible for purchase prior to the sim, the bid is void.
How to Place a Bid:
To bid on an SPBC player, use the /bid command anywhere in Slack. See the PBC Slack Bot Instructions page page for full details.
If the /bid command returns an error or the player cannot be found, use the /refresh-players command to update the database. Occasionally, the player list needs to be manually refreshed before a bid can be placed.
How Bids Are Processed:
If only one bid is received before the next sim, the player is purchased for the standard $10,000 price, regardless of the max bid submitted.
If multiple bids are received, the highest max bid wins.
In the event of a tie, the team with the higher waiver priority receives the player.
Once the fetch-bids command is run before a sim, bids are locked for that sim. Any new bids will be processed during the next sim.
Changing or Retracting a Bid:
To change a bid, simply reuse the /bid command and submit the new amount. The most recent valid bid always replaces the old one. To retract a bid, send a PM to the commissioner requesting that your bid be voided.
Semi-pro players earning $16,500 or more will be automatically included in the PBC team's 35-man roster upon purchase. If a GM does not have sufficient room on their 35-man roster, the bid (or outbid) will be void. Players earning less than $16,500 will be secured under a PBC minor league contract upon acquisition.
GMs may provide instructions to the commissioner on which players to waive in the event they win the bid and cannot immediately accommodate the new player on their 35-man roster.
Note on Service Time Adjustments: Players purchased from the SPBC who have no previous PBC major league service time will have their service clocks reset to zero, making them PBC rookies.
If a player has appeared in any PBC game at any point in their career, their existing service time will remain unchanged.
In rare cases, the commissioner may manually adjust service time for certain players to ensure they do not appear on a Hall of Fame ballot when they shouldn't.
Note for Commish: To process bids more than $10k, simply change the purchase amount in the SPBC financial settings. Be sure to set it back to $10k when you are done. Bids will be processed on the final day of the sim. The normal sequence should be to process trades, then SPBC bids, then upload.
Teams can discover up to 16 players per year and is completely random.
The international showcase will begin on May 13th and international practice will run automatically 4 times; once in May, June, July, August. On August 6th, the IAFA signing period will begin. This is ideal because with 5 day sims during the season, you'll have the ability to rapidly adjust offers as the IAFA period plays out.
There is currently no IAFA signing cap, though top prospects typically cost around $1 million.
The number of IAFA players is set to default (64 per year), which works out to 4 per team.
Around the trade deadline, the SPBC will gain the ability to sign players from the IAFA pool, however they will never outbid a PBC team for a player due to the financial imbalance. These players may be purchased in the future as an SPBC (Indy League) Player Purchase.
International scouting discoveries or players signed as an IAFA will be placed in your international complex. This level doesn't have competitive matches and offers limited player growth.
If a player earns one professional year and has not been promoted out of the international complex, the commish will move them to your Rookie Complex after at the start of each official reseason.
Players will not be returned to the international complex for any reason once they are promoted out.
Total team payroll, counting only non-minimum contracts and any retained salary from trades, must remain at or below $8 million. A minimum contract is defined as a current-season salary of $100,000; these contracts have no cap hit.
Any player making more than $100,000 has their entire salary counted toward the $8M cap. Players on above-minimum contracts count against the cap regardless of status, including those on the injured list, waivers, the DFA list, or in the minor leagues.
The salary cap setting is disabled in OOTP, but still enforced. See Section 4.1.3 for details.
Pro-tips:
a. The easiest way to calculate your cap hit is to open your Salaries tab and add up every salary above $100,000. Most teams only have a handful of these players, so verifying your cap number is quick and straightforward.b. Released player contracts do not count toward the $8M cap, but the team is still responsible for paying the full remaining salary. That money is deducted from your available funds and will appear under Miscellaneous Expenses in the accounting screen.
Salary cap violations are only checked before regular season and post-season games. Trades that would cause a team to exceed the salary cap cannot be processed before the sim. Teams may exceed the salary cap to complete trades processed after the sim, but they must be under the salary cap prior to the next salary cap check.
The League Office has strict sanctions for violations of the cap. Sanctions, unless otherwise specified, are in the form of suspensions to the highest paid healthy player on the roster of the violating team. The sanctions are as followed:
The league commissioners meticulously track all violations. If a GM consistently breaches the rules, they fall under the repeater clause, which escalates the penalties with each subsequent offense.
For instance, the Denver Cutthroats breached the cap on July 1st, 2000, receiving an initial warning. When they violated again on August 4th, 2001, the penalty was a 4-game suspension, bypassing another warning due to their past infringement.
However, GMs can redeem themselves. If a GM with a previous violation remains violation-free for three straight seasons, their repeater status is cleared, essentially resetting their violation record. This is known as the Good Behavior Clause.
The $8 million team above-minimum salary cap remains fully in effect however, the in-game salary cap setting in OOTP has been disabled to allow for more flexible roster management.
This change reflects the PBC's long-standing philosophy: Teams have full control over roster construction, as long as they are under the cap before any game is played.
The cap is still enforced. Every team must be under the $8 million limit prior to each game.
The in-game setting was disabled because OOTP enforces the cap too rigidly, often blocking common-sense moves like multi-offer free agency or temporary overages during roster adjustments.
Teams can now:
It is the GM’s responsibility to ensure their team is under the cap before each game. If a signing or trade puts a team over the limit, corresponding moves must be made prior to the next game.
This change makes free agency more dynamic, trading easier, and roster management smoother, all without compromising the core rule: stay under the cap on game day.
A situation came up previously where a team was $2k over salary cap, an overage of 0.025% above the $8M cap. Under the previous rules, correcting that would have required a large salary dump, which is not a reasonable or proportional outcome for a violation of that size.
The cap is meant to prevent overspending, not to create six or seven figure consequences for minor cap overages caused by miscounts, rounding differences, or other trivial issues. This exposed a gap in the rules that needed to be addressed.
As a result, the following rule is in place:
If a team is over the salary cap by $50,000 or less, the commissioner will adjust a player's contract to bring the team into compliance. The current year salary will be reduced by the amount of the overage, and the following year's salary will be increased by double that amount as a tax/deferment penalty. The GM will have no input into which player is selected. (It really doesn't matter at all which player is selected, i just don't want to open the door for a GM to try and game it. I'd probably pick a player with the best chance at remaining with the team next season)
If the team has no player under contract for the following season, this option is unavailable and the team must make a roster move.
Example: A team over the cap by $10,000 in 2023 will have a player's 2023 salary reduced by $10,000 and his 2024 salary increased by $20,000.
This is not a general restructuring tool and does not apply to most cap violations. Larger overages will continue to require standard roster action.
In the PBC, all players enter free agency unless they are designated as a Face of the Franchise (FoF). The purpose of the FoF rule is to celebrate, reward, and facilitate the longevity of players with a single team, while also providing mechanisms to ensure fairness and prevent exploitation of the rule. There is no cap on the number of FoF players a team can have.
Additionally, the Face of the Franchise rule emphasizes the value of scouting, player development, and drafting strategies:
Rewarding Strong Development : The criteria for a player to be tagged as FoF, specifically being 100% homegrown, ensures that the team gets the opportunity to reward its own scouting and development successes. If a team is consistently able to identify and develop high-caliber talent from the draft or as international amateurs, they can benefit from the FoF rule by having more eligible candidates for this designation.
Long-term Strategy : By incentivizing the retention of homegrown players, teams might be more inclined to invest in their scouting departments and player development systems. It could encourage a more holistic approach to building a roster rather than relying solely on free agency or trades.
Building a Core and Legacy: Teams that draft well can establish a strong core group of players who remain with the franchise for the long term. Not only does this core serve as the foundation for sustained success on the field, but it also significantly contributes to the legacy and lore of the franchise. As these players become synonymous with the team's identity and achievements, they leave an enduring mark on its history.
Only players who meet one of the following criteria may be tagged as a Face of the Franchise:
Example: A player acquired while in the minors who debuts with your team, plays several seasons, becomes a free agent, and re-signs without ever joining another organization remains eligible once they reach 10 total seasons of Service Time with your team.
Players may be tagged at any time before they file as a free agent. To tag a player as a Face of the Franchise, post their name in #request-commish-action, and a commissioner will verify their eligibility and take action.
There are three Face of the Franchise (FoF) designations: FoF Prime, FoF Icon, and FoF Legend. The type of tag a player receives depends on their projected major league service time at the end of the season in which they are tagged, which must be during the final year of their contract:
FoF Prime — Fewer than 10 years of ML service
FoF Icon — 10 to 14 years of ML service
FoF Legend — 15 or more years of ML service
A player may be tagged multiple times over the course of their career.
Once a player is tagged as a Face of the Franchise (FoF), their remaining automatic renewal seasons become guaranteed, including the 6th season if they are still eligible for the Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI). In addition, the player receives a 5-year FoF contract extension with no options and a full no-trade clause (NTC), appended to the end of their current contract.
FoF salaries represent a fixed cap value within the PBC system and are not intended to suggest the player is being underpaid.
The salary of the FoF extension is fixed by tier as follows:
FoF Prime: $1,500,000 per year.
Note: If a player earned PPI, they will get an initial 4-year contract rather than 5. See chapter 3.2.2 for info.
FoF Icon: $500,000 per year.
FoF Legend: Salary will be set by the Commissioner based on the player’s age, role, and projected level of contribution, but may not exceed $500,000 per year. The salary will be set prior to tagging.
Players may be tagged as FoF Legend multiple times.
While FoF players can be traded if they waive their NTC, GMs shouldn't label players as FoF solely to boost trade value. Trades deemed to exploit this for added value, using discretion and with agreement from the competition committee, will be declined.
While the Face of the Franchise rule is designed to reward long-term development and loyalty, an FoF tag can significantly impact a team’s payroll and competitive balance if used recklessly. Because of this, the Competition Committee reserves the right to review any FoF tag for reasonableness.
The CC will consider denying a FoF tag only when the proposed FoF contract value is substantially disproportionate to the player’s on-field value, such that the tag would severely handicap the franchise. In these cases, the CC will notify the GM and allow them to provide justification or additional context before a final ruling is made.
The CC may overturn a FoF tag if the tagging GM leaves the league shortly after applying it. The goal is to avoid long-term damage to a roster that the departing GM will not be around to manage. If the caretaker GM believes the tag was reasonable, it may be upheld. In situations where immediately releasing the player into free agency would be unfair or disruptive, such as late in the offseason, the CC may instead shorten the contract to its final year, after which the player will enter free agency.
The goal of this review process is not to police personal evaluations, but to maintain competitive integrity and prevent FoF designations from being used in ways that negatively affects roster health, especially by inexperienced or departing GMs.
League customization is a very important tool to increase immersion and reduce GM turnover. The ability to modify your stadium and park factors, player details, turn former players into coaches, relocating your team, and changing your logos have all greatly improved our enjoyment of the league and really sets our league apart from the others.
GMs may request custom ratings for their scouting director or team trainer by posting in the #request-commish-action channel. Customized staff ratings are meant to be solid and balance, but not elite. This system allows GMs to tailor a staff member’s strengths without gaining an unfair advantage over others who choose to hire from the open market.
To request customization, a staff member must already be employed in the role. If the position is vacant, the GM must first hire a scout or trainer from the available free agent pool. The only exception is if a scout retires at the start of the offseason, in which case the commissioner will assign a one-year replacement at a $75,000 salary to allow for immediate customization.
Custom staff use a 1-8 rating scale, with GMs distributing a set number of points across the available categories:
Each category rating has the following meaning:
8 = Legendary, 7 = Outstanding, 6 = Excellent, 5 = Good, 4 = Average, 3 = OK, 2 = Fair, 1 = Poor
Scouting categories: Scout Majors, Scout Minors, Scout Internationals, Scout Amateurs
Trainer categories: Heal Arms, Heal Legs, Heal Back, Heal Other, Prevent Arm Injuries, Prevent Leg Injuries, Prevent Back Injuries, Prevent Other Injuries. Heal Rest is automatically set to Good and does not use any of the 44 points.
Scouting directors may also be assigned a scouting preference (Highly Favor Ability, Favor Ability, Neutral, Favor Tools, or Highly Favor Tools). Changes apply only to future scouting reports. Trainer focus will automatically reflect the highest-rated category.
If a GM hires a low-rated scout or trainer on a minimal contract and requests a ratings adjustment, the commissioner may raise the salary to reflect the new value (typically between $100–200K). This prevents teams from gaining an indirect advantage by customizing underpaid staff. The GM will be informed beforehand and can cancel the request if they prefer to keep the original contract.
Custom requests are not intended to be routine. As a general guideline, GMs should limit customization to once every five seasons per role. The commissioner may decline or delay requests made more frequently based on reasonableness and league balance.
Cosmetic changes (e.g., name, age, appearance) may be requested at any time, unless the staff member was formerly a player, in which case personal details will remain unchanged.
Customized staff ratings does not guarantee better results than hiring from free agency. GMs are encouraged to evaluate all available options before submitting a request.
There are a few ways to customize your ballpark. Teams may rename their stadium and modify seating capacity. Park factor changes are currently suspended.
At any point during the season or offseason, GMs may submit stadium naming requests or capacity expansion plans to be completed in the offseason. Stadium names may be changed at any time. All modification requests must be submitted in the #request-commish-action channel.
Seating capacity represents the maximum number of tickets that can be sold for a single game. A larger capacity may increase revenue potential, particularly for teams that regularly sell out.
All stadiums begin with a capacity of 35,000. Stadiums may expand up to 55,000 seats.
Each additional seat costs $500.
1,000 seats = $500,000.
There is no minimum increment requirement. Teams may add as many or as few seats as desired, subject to financial constraints.
The total amount that may be spent on stadium upgrades each offseason is limited to the team’s “Starting Balance” as shown in team finances. Teams must also have sufficient available funds to cover any approved upgrades.
Park factors influence statistical output at a given stadium.
At this time, park factor modifications are suspended while a more realistic and long-term system is developed. Creating a balanced structure that fits the league requires deliberate design, and that process will take time.
Existing park factors will remain in place until a revised framework is published.
Commish turned coaches (CTC) generally will have better initial coaching ratings than computer generated coaches so it's important to have some guidelines and awareness of the process. Requesting a CTC does not give you the right to the coach. He may be signed by anyone.
A GM may turn a former player into a coach as long as the player fits certain criteria. All CTC's will be created as position coaches with an option for manager preference if qualified.A GM may not request just any player to be a CTC.
Request a CTC in the #commish-request-action channel.
They must have at least a normal in the rating categories of Intelligence and Work Ethic. For a player to have a manager option, his leadership rating must be high. Hitting and pitching focus will relate to the type of player he was. For example, you can't request a contact focus if the player was a slugger that struck out every other at bat. The requester may suggest a focus to be considered with good reason. Also, personality and management style will not be changed unless the requestor has a good reason to why it should be changed.
A GM holds 'CTC request rights' for players based on specific conditions. A GM qualifies for these rights under either of the following conditions:
As a result, multiple GMs can hold CTC rights over a single player.
CTC's will be processed at the start of the PBC offseason and will be announced in #commish-announcements.
GM's may change the cosmetic details of players in order to improve immersion by adding family, friends, and etc.
Changes may include name, HT/WT, face, number, and birthday (within 365 days). College players cannot be edited to a HS age (20-19 or 19-18). The commish has the right to deny a change if there are signs of abuse. Changes are not allowed to reflect a real player unless it is a personal request.
Players may be changed at any time, but once a player has been promoted to the PBC, they are no longer eligible for cosmetic edits other than nicknames.
To request a change, post in the #request-commish-action channel.
Note: The purpose of this rule is to enhance immersion—not to overhaul players you simply dislike or to mass-customize your roster. No GM should need more than 10 total cosmetic change requests over their entire tenure; while this is not an exact hard cap, the commissioner will notify you if you are approaching the limit.
Regarding nicknames: Nicknames are unlimited and encouraged because they add flavor to the league. However, they should arise organically through banter, storylines, and league culture, rather than being applied as mass personalization.
The PBC places a high value on continuity, realism, and long-term league history. Team locations and brandings were intentionally established to create a coherent and believable structure at both the major and minor league levels.
Relocations and re-brandings are possible, but only in rare circumstances and only when they make sense within the established narrative of the league. Market size, geography, affiliate structure, and long-term plausibility will all be considered. Moves that undermine league credibility will not be approved.
Minor league changes are more likely to be considered than major league changes, but they must remain consistent with the league’s market-tier structure. Each level was intentionally built around defined market sizes, and proposed changes must fit within that framework.
All branding decisions, including logos and uniforms, remain subject to Commissioner approval. Significant time and care have been invested in maintaining a consistent league aesthetic, and any change must meet that same standard.
GMs join the league to steward an existing franchise within an established framework, not to redesign it independently.
Starting in the winter of 2024-25, the PBC will introduce the Professional Baseball Hall of Fame, marking 25 seasons of the super-league. For Hall of Fame eligibility, players must have at least 10 years of PBC service. Stats and service time before 2000 won't count towards this eligibility.
After retirement, players can remain on the ballot for 20 years (this will reduce to 10 years from 2030 onwards). Those who played in the Major League in any of the last three seasons prior won't be included in the Hall of Fame ballot.
Both human and AI votes will determine the inductees. Players need 80% of the votes to be elected, while those receiving less than 20% will be removed from future considerations.
Hall of Fame voting will be tracked and count toward each GM’s activity score for draft lottery odds.
All GMs are expected to submit their ballots genuinely and in good faith. Submitting a ballot that clearly disregards the spirit of the process may result in no voting activity credit for that season’s lottery, and in more severe cases, removal of all activity credits (including those earned through exports) from the next lottery.
Examples of disingenuous ballots include, but are not limited to:
You are better off not submitting a ballot at all than submitting one that undermines the integrity of the Hall of Fame process. The commissioner, with input from the Competition Committee, will have final discretion on whether a ballot meets the good-faith standard for credit.
All Hall of Fame voting takes place within OOTP, not on StatsPlus. Ballots must be submitted through the in-game interface during the designated voting window to be counted for activity credit or historical recordkeeping.
In the PBC, rules aren't set in stone. Every GM, regardless of tenure, is encouraged to suggest changes for the betterment of the league. Understand that some suggested changes will not get approved; there might not even be agreement that there's a problem. This chapter will help outline the process once potential changes have been made public.
Initial Proposal: Informal talks can begin in the general Slack channel, but formal proposals move to a dedicated channel, using Slack threads to streamline discussions.
Discussion Guidelines: Respectful and constructive input is encouraged from all members. No single GM should attempt to domineer, monopolize, or hijack the thread. Attempts to do so will result in deleted posts. Everything posted will be considered for the subsequent polling. Once polls begin, new options may no longer be considered. Please get your thoughts posted in a timely manner, as there will usually be a time limit set for discussions.
Voting Process: Changes are usually determined through a series of polls. The first poll captures all options discussed, aiming to narrow choices down. The exact procedure will vary based on circumstances and the commissioner's discretion. The final poll dictates the implementation. However, the commissioner is responsible for adjusting voting methods based on each situation and should clarify the voting process before any polls are initiated.
Voting Thresholds: Major changes require two-thirds approval, while minor changes need a simple majority. General, non-impactful changes may be implemented directly by the commissioner.
Mandatory Voting: All members must vote, or risk being deemed inactive.
Immediate or Delayed Implementation: Most changes are implemented immediately, but some may be delayed to prevent adverse effects on league strategies. The commissioner will make a decision on when to implement based on his best judgement and advice from others.
Revisiting Changes: Changes, or lack of change, may be reassessed in subsequent seasons. Changes might not always pan out, or league dynamics might evolve. However to revisit a rule change, we should aim to wait three full seasons since its implementation. This ensures adequate time to judge the rule's effect.
Note: Not all proposals advance to polling due to various reasons. Reach out to the commissioner for clarifications.
The league values member contributions and ideas. However, it's essential to remember the foundational ideals that led to the league's inception. Proposals such as allowing player extensions or introducing a sub-league might diverge from this foundational vision. As long as the league's founder remains an active member, they reserve the right to decline suggestions that deviate from the initial intent. This isn't a dismissal of innovative ideas but an effort to uphold the league's original principles. Members are urged to propose changes with an understanding of this balance.