Amend two-way player arb salary calculation?

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

This is a league decision requiring:
A majority of the vote from those responding to the poll to be accepted and written into the rulebook.

It is proposed that if accepted, this change be made instantly and be used for 2021-2022 salary arb calculation.


This rule change is intended to make the arb salaries of two-way players more fair.
This topic was discussed here: mlbbaseballleague.proboards.com/thread/5660/espn-player-rater

The proposal is to add the following rule into the rulebook:


3.5.2 Two-way players
At the point of calculating arb salaries, any player identified by the scoring website as both a pitcher (SP or RP) and a hitter (UT or any other position) will be a 'two-way' player for the purposes of calculating arbitration salaries. Player rater category scores (and therefore their overall player rater scores) for two-way players will be estimated by the commissioner if they are not explicitly shown on the ESPN player rater itself.
Where a two-way player simultaneously achieves positive (0.01 or higher) player rater scores when summing the 5 hitting categories and when summing the 5 pitching categories, their overall player rater score will be calculated to be 100% of the higher value plus 75% of the lower value - regardless of which value relates to hitting performance and which to pitching performance.
Where a two-way player fails to achieve a positive player rater score in either the hitting or the pitching sums (or both), that aspect of their player rater contribution as a two-way player will simply count as a zero when calculating their total player rater score.

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

This vote is open following the completion of the following:
mlbbaseballleague.proboards.com/thread/5864/best-deal-player-arb-salaries

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

This poll is coming along nicely.
If we reach 16 votes for either option before the end of the week and all of the rest of the offseason admin is complete, we may be able to release the roster freeze period a couple of days early.

Get voting!

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

By a tally of 16-4, the league has voted to add the proposed rule to recognise the reduced value of two-way players vs their full PR score.
This rule comes into effect immediately. The rule book will be updated shortly.


As a result of this change, one player's 2021 arbitration salary will be altered.
Shohei Ohtani's 2021 player rater score will now be considered to be 17.00 (as opposed to 18.39) for the purpose of 2022 arbitration salary calculation.

I guess it remains to be seen whether this rule is ever used again, and/or if any other player than Ohtani even comes close to needing it!