Down the Rabbit Hole on a Potential Mason Miller Trade
If the Oakland A's trade away closer Mason Miller this summer, there won't be an extra wrinkle to the deal. When the new CBA went into effect, a new rule was put in place called the PPI, or prospect promotion incentive. Essentially, if a certain type of player wins an award at the end of the season, like Rookie of the Year, then the team is awarded an extra draft pick after the first round the following season. The idea here is that keeping a player in the minors and manipulating their service time would hurt a player's chances of winning such an award, therefore the teams are incentivized to promote them as early as possible.
With Mason Miller holding a 0.93 ERA with a 0.62 WHIP and a 54.3% strikeout rate, he's setting himself up to be in the conversation for AL Rookie of the Year consideration.
There have also been rumors that the A's have been asked about Miller in trade talks, and with the team's track record, the randomness of relievers, and his own injury history, Oakland trading him away isn't out of the question. That got me to wondering what happens with a potential draft pick if he gets ROY honors. Which team would get that pick: the A's, or the new team?
Well, it turns out nobody would, because as we said up top, only certain players are eligible for the PPI program, and Miller is not one of them. Back in February MLB.com published a list of all the players that would be eligible in 2024, and for Oakland the list solely included Jacob Wilson and Luis Morales.
If you're wondering why those two players and not Miller, the reasoning is simple. The rules. Here is the set of requirements that need to be met in order to qualify as a PPI player.
"A player had to be on at least two out of the three top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline, as well as being rookie eligible and have fewer than 60 days of service time."
Matt Eddy of Baseball America has also reported that players that are traded do not retain their PPI status, so even if Miller were a PPI player, if the A's traded him, he wouldn't come with a draft pick incentive attached to him.
In essence, nothing has changed, but this was a fun rabbit hole that I went down to find out if there was an answer to the question, because what team--other than the A's--would trade away a Rookie of the Year candidate? Turns out they thought about that during CBA negotiations, and if the A's do ever do this in the future, then they would not receive a draft pick.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.