I have a somewhat involved question about rule 5 players.

I see a rule 5 draft player on the waiver wire. I want to pick this player up, but stash him in the minors. I know that he must go to my ML roster for the year. But, can I offer him back to his team (will this be the waiving team or the original team?) and then waive him if they refuse, If he clears waivers, can he then go to the minors? Does the fact that he was already waived affect his ability to be put on waivers again? 

How about your own rule 5 draftees - can you send them to the minors if they pass both the offer back and the wavier wire?

punkzip, one thing you want to be careful of is the general hatred the system has for rule 5 players. Almost every time i have ever claimed one their ratings dropped simply because they were waived. Furthermore if you want to put them in the minors on top of that i wouldn't be surprised if their ratings drop again. If you are OK with the possibility of those things happening, then here is the best answers I can provide. Keep in mind I have been away from the game awhile so some things might have changed or I may have forgotten some things.

When you offer him back he will automatically go on waivers again. And then he would be offered back to his original team.

If he clears the offer back process he can go to the minors, and yes you will be able to waive him again, if you win the claim, because he did not clear waivers the first time.

Also, yes you can send your own draftees to the minors once they clear waivers and pass the offer back stage.

A word of caution on the offer back stage... It can take forever. Why? There are owners out there like myself who simply get ticked off when one of our minor leaguers gets drafted in rule 5 and ruined. And they will take as long as they possibly can before they decline the offer back. I think you can literally take 9 days without responding (real days which is 27 games) and then on the 10th day it automatically declines. But i don't remember for sure.

I'm going to see if I can find a player that may be a good example of what I mean by multiple ratings drops. I think I have one right now.

I found him. I had totally forgotten I released him and just took my losses. This guy was totally ruined by rule 5.

http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerProfile.aspx?pid=2623154

Notice how he was claimed more than once for starters. There was more than one owner who had the same idea. Get him, waive him again, and stash him in the minors. I was actually the guy who finally got that done. Then look at the line that says "promotion." This is when I finally had him clear the offer back and I put him in AA. He got ticked off again and took yet another ratings drop. This kid probably would have never reached anywhere near his potential just because of the idiotic rule 5 process. He started the season at 66 and may have been a usable ML player. But because of various owners impatience with him, including my own, he is now a 64 and I would bet that's where he stays, especially since he's now a free agent in total decline.

A clarification: the act of waiving a player does not cause a ratings hit.  My guess as to what happened here: anytime you offer back a R5 guy, he's removed from the active roster, same as if he was DFA'd.  The time he spends as unassigned, he's not getting any playing time and he's not getting any instruction from coaches.  Thus, his skills take the risk of regressing.

This guy was offered back 5 times in a single season.  That's a lot of time spent on the unassigned list, and a lot of opportunity for him to lose skills.

A final point: the R5 system does not "hate" or "ruin" players.  Owners do, with the way they handle them.