Teams will receive extra draft picks as compensation for promoting young players to their Opening Day roster who later finish in the top 3 in the Rookie of the Year voting or in the top 5 in Most Valuable Player or Cy Young Award voting.
[3] George Springer, prior to his major-league debut in the 2014 season, had turned down a seven-year, $23 million contract offer from the Houston Astros.
A writer for CBS Sports described the move as service time manipulation and as a reprisal for rejecting the contract offer.
The Cubs started Mike Olt, who had a .159 career batting average, at Bryant’s typical position on Opening Day.
[6] In a recorded address to a Rotary Club chapter in Bellevue, Washington on February 5, 2021, Seattle Mariners president Kevin Mather openly cited service time reasons for not calling up top prospects to the majors in the previous season.