How long does a guy need to be in the Bigs to be counted as a year towards arbitration ?? If I bring up a guy with only 28 games in this season, will this season be counted as a full year towards his arbitration clock ??

Thanks

I believe the rule is if a Player spends 20 or more games in the minors in a season, it won't count as a full season in the bigs. You are definitly fine if the player only played 28 ML games.

He has to be kept down for 20 minor league days (which is usually about 23 major league days) to avoid burning a year. So no, a 28-game season wouldn't even come close to burning an arb year. You're safe.

I believe a year of service (with respect to the arb clock) is 172 major league days.

As farren83 and prezuiwf have pointed out, minor league assignments of less than 20 days count as major league service. So to clarify . . . he would need to spend 20 (or more) consecutive days in the minors. You cannot split it into two separate assignments of 10 and 10, for instance.