[Pelican]

Not sure what the answer is, as I have never done expansion this way. I like to give the new expansion teams “lead time” by starting a farm system and signing amateur players - participating in the draft for a few years before their first MLB season. And of course any new team would have staff, well before the start of their first season. In other words, you will need lots of players beyond the ones you acquire through the expansion draft. (And depending how many players the established teams can protect, the expansion draft may only yield second-line players and over-the-hill stars with ridiculous contracts.)

What the game may be doing is providing you with this infrastructure, rather than have your team go into the expansion draft with no staff, and no reservoir of young players.

As an example of how to do expansion, to yield potentially competitive teams, rather than laughingstocks, in my next expansion, I will allow the new teams to participate in the amateur draft starting four years before expansion, and thus have rookie league teams for those players, that first year. Three years out, they will have at least a low-A minor league team. Two years out, they will add a high-A team or teams. One year out, they will add a AA team. They will be participating in the amateur draft each year. When they reach the expansion draft, they will have an organization of young players, and can choose accordingly. Their first year, they will add a AAA team, for the best young players, as well as the vets who don’t make the MLB team. I think this approach builds anticipation, and puts the new teams on more of an equal footing with the established teams.