Quote:
Originally Posted by plannine
If your doing historical before the mid-60's remember there wasn't a draft then!! Everything was pure and simple. Offer him money and get him to sign!!!! In the late 40's or early 50's if you offered him more then a few thousand dollars, you'd have to keep him on your major league roster for the year. This was to keep salaries low. As bonus went higher (and Kansas City would sign, keep for a year and trade to the Yankees) they implemented the draft (again to keep signing salaries low).
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Just to flesh out the above, bonus rules were in effect in MLB from 1946-50 and 1950-57. Both times the rules stated that any amateur player signed with a bonus over a set amount had to be retained on the major league active list roster and generally could not be optioned to the minors. But the rules ultimately did not work, as clubs found ways around the rules, including under-the-table payments to players.
In 1959 the first year player draft was implemented. This draft worked by allowing any minor league player after his first season in the minors to be drafted by any major league club unless that player was advanced to the major league active list roster. The idea was that a major league team wouldn't pay an amateur player a large signing bonus if it knew there was a good chance he'd be drafted away by another club after the first year. Generally, such first-year players could not be optioned to the minors.
The first-year player draft rules didn't do all that much to reduce signing bonuses either, so the amateur draft was adopted for June of 1965 (and was held twice per year, in January and June, up until 1986).