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Major League Baseball transactions
Major League Baseball transactions are changes made to the roster of a Major League Baseball team during or after the season. They may include waiving, releasing, and trading players, as well as assigning players to minor league teams.
As of the 2025 season, each team maintains a 26-man active roster, a 28-man expanded roster, and a 40-man reserve list of players. Players on the 26-man roster are eligible to play in official major league games throughout the season. The 40-man reserve list includes the players on the 26-man roster plus as many as 14 players who are either on the team's seven-, ten-, fifteen-, or 60-day injured list, who are on paternity leave for up to three days, or who are in the franchise's farm teams in Minor League Baseball. From September 1 through the end of the regular season, each team is required to expand its active roster to 28 players (before the 2020 season, any player on the 40-man reserve list, also referred to as the "expanded roster", was eligible to play in an official regular season game on or after September 1). Many young players make their Major League debuts in this way, as "September call-ups."
To be eligible for a team's postseason roster, a player must be on any of the following: (a) the 40-man reserve list, (b) the injured list, (c) the bereavement list, or (d) the restricted list as of August 31 at midnight ET. The only exception is that a player who is on the injured list at the end of the regular season may be replaced on the postseason roster by any other player who was in the organization on August 31, with the approval of the Commissioner. All players on the team's roster during the season will be eligible to receive a World Series ring after the team wins the World Series.
The August 31 rule was waived in 1945 for servicemen returning from World War II. Over the years, there have been several notable cases where a player acquired after the August 31 deadline made a significant contribution to a playoff-contending team but was ineligible for the postseason; for example, Pedro Ramos with the 1964 New York Yankees and Sparky Lyle with the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies.
As of 1945, teams may trade only players currently under contract. Trades between two or more major-league teams may freely occur at any time during a window that opens two days after the starting date of the final game of the most recent World Series and closes at 4 pm Eastern Daylight Time (UTC 2000) on July 31. MLB had allowed trades during the month of August if players cleared waivers, but August trades involving players on a team's 40-man reserve list were eliminated after the 2018 season per the Official Major League Rules, 9(b)(3).
Unlike in the NFL, NHL, MLS, and the NBA, teams may not trade draft choices (with the exception of competitive balance draft selections, which can be traded as explained below), but may purchase the rights to Rule 5 Draft Picks.
Beginning with the 2012 season, MLB allows one specific class of draft picks to be traded. As part of a newly signed collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players' union, each team is allocated a "bonus pool"—a set amount of money it can use to sign its draft picks for that year. Teams that go over their threshold can be penalized by losing one or more future draft picks. Those forfeited draft picks will eventually end up in the possession of small-revenue teams, which can then trade them if they wish. The first picks awarded under this scheme were for the 2013 draft.
If a player has been on an active major league roster for 10 full seasons and on one team for the last five, he may not be traded to another team without his consent (known as the 10 & 5 rule). Additionally, some players negotiate to have no-trade clauses in their contracts that have the same effect.
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Major League Baseball transactions AI simulator
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Major League Baseball transactions
Major League Baseball transactions are changes made to the roster of a Major League Baseball team during or after the season. They may include waiving, releasing, and trading players, as well as assigning players to minor league teams.
As of the 2025 season, each team maintains a 26-man active roster, a 28-man expanded roster, and a 40-man reserve list of players. Players on the 26-man roster are eligible to play in official major league games throughout the season. The 40-man reserve list includes the players on the 26-man roster plus as many as 14 players who are either on the team's seven-, ten-, fifteen-, or 60-day injured list, who are on paternity leave for up to three days, or who are in the franchise's farm teams in Minor League Baseball. From September 1 through the end of the regular season, each team is required to expand its active roster to 28 players (before the 2020 season, any player on the 40-man reserve list, also referred to as the "expanded roster", was eligible to play in an official regular season game on or after September 1). Many young players make their Major League debuts in this way, as "September call-ups."
To be eligible for a team's postseason roster, a player must be on any of the following: (a) the 40-man reserve list, (b) the injured list, (c) the bereavement list, or (d) the restricted list as of August 31 at midnight ET. The only exception is that a player who is on the injured list at the end of the regular season may be replaced on the postseason roster by any other player who was in the organization on August 31, with the approval of the Commissioner. All players on the team's roster during the season will be eligible to receive a World Series ring after the team wins the World Series.
The August 31 rule was waived in 1945 for servicemen returning from World War II. Over the years, there have been several notable cases where a player acquired after the August 31 deadline made a significant contribution to a playoff-contending team but was ineligible for the postseason; for example, Pedro Ramos with the 1964 New York Yankees and Sparky Lyle with the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies.
As of 1945, teams may trade only players currently under contract. Trades between two or more major-league teams may freely occur at any time during a window that opens two days after the starting date of the final game of the most recent World Series and closes at 4 pm Eastern Daylight Time (UTC 2000) on July 31. MLB had allowed trades during the month of August if players cleared waivers, but August trades involving players on a team's 40-man reserve list were eliminated after the 2018 season per the Official Major League Rules, 9(b)(3).
Unlike in the NFL, NHL, MLS, and the NBA, teams may not trade draft choices (with the exception of competitive balance draft selections, which can be traded as explained below), but may purchase the rights to Rule 5 Draft Picks.
Beginning with the 2012 season, MLB allows one specific class of draft picks to be traded. As part of a newly signed collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players' union, each team is allocated a "bonus pool"—a set amount of money it can use to sign its draft picks for that year. Teams that go over their threshold can be penalized by losing one or more future draft picks. Those forfeited draft picks will eventually end up in the possession of small-revenue teams, which can then trade them if they wish. The first picks awarded under this scheme were for the 2013 draft.
If a player has been on an active major league roster for 10 full seasons and on one team for the last five, he may not be traded to another team without his consent (known as the 10 & 5 rule). Additionally, some players negotiate to have no-trade clauses in their contracts that have the same effect.