When can you promote a player to the ML and not have it count as a year toward arbitration? I hear it is somewhere around 25 or 30. Anyone know the exact #?

I believe the number is 20 days, but I've been burned a couple of times when trying to time it exactly.

A good rule of thumb that works for me is to do promotions no sooner than one week after the minor league schedule starts.

So if your first minor league game is on a Wednesday with the AM cycle, do your promotions the following Wednesday after the AM cycle.

You might lose a day or two, but it makes it much easier to plan.

Thanks

If your ML team has played 23 games I know you're safe

From GM Office >> Help >> FAQ, then scroll down to "Players" section:
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"How does a player gain big league years of experience? Is service time a part of it?"

"Yes. We track service time in days. It is viewable by hovering over the ML Years value on a player's profile. Each day a player is on the big league roster during the regular season (even if he's on the DL), he accrues a day of service. In addition, we track the # of days a player is on optional assignment on a minor league team. If a player is on optional assignment less than 20 days during the season, this total is added to his big league service time. At the end of the season, if a player has 172 days or more (including any optional service days < 20), he is given a year of big league experience. If not, the days roll over into the next season. These years are what dictate arbitration eligibility and free-agent eligibility."

It is important to note that a player registers days on optional assignment only after the minor league schedule has begun. There is typically a 1 or 2 HBD day difference between when the big league schedule starts and when the minor league schedule starts.
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So, as long as your guy gets 20 days in AAA and you then promote him, he won't accrue a year of ML service time. By the way, those 20 days don't have to be consecutive, or at the beginning of the season. Every time I've done it, the player's AAA schedule had an off day in the first 20 (so I think that's the case all the time), so I've promoted after 19 games/20 days. That's always worked, but give it another day or 2 cushion if you're unsure.

This question gets asked a lot, and the thing people miss that creates confusion is that it's 20 MINOR LEAGUE DAYS. Count the minor league days...if they add up to 20, you're safe.

I usually just wait until 25 to be completely safe.

I submitted this ticket earlier today and will share admin's response when I hear back:

If a player on the ML roster gets demoted to AAA with 24 days in the ML season, but only 4 days in the AAA season, and stays down for 20 or more cycles will the player accrue a full season of ML service? Does it matter if the AAA team makes the playoffs and he plays in 20 MiL games regular season and playoff games combined? Or put another way, if the player is not on the ML team for 20 plus days will the time not count toward his ML service?