MLB’s Dirty Secret: Why Top Prospects Still Ride the Bench

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Service-time manipulation, the practice of keeping a major-league-ready prospect in the minors to delay the start of his service clock, has become a pointed flashpoint in baseball. Teams gain a full extra year of cost-controlled labor by holding a player back for just a few weeks each season, leveraging minor-league assignment to extend club control before arbitration and free agency. Critics argue it stalls the careers of talented youngsters and undermines competitive fairness. Meanwhile, players and the MLB Players Association have pushed for incentives to reward clubs that bring top prospects up early. The recent collective bargaining agreement (CBA) introduced new perks meant to tilt the calculus toward prompt promotion.

Under the existing service-time system, each player accumulates one full year of major-league service by spending 172 days on the active roster. Teams benefit tremendously from that extra year of cheap, pre-arbitration talent. A player’s salary jumps dramatically once he reaches arbitration eligibility and again at free agency. By holding a budding star in Triple-A for even 20 days, a club defers potentially millions in payroll. From a strictly financial standpoint, service-time manipulation can seem like prudent asset management.

The latest CBA sought to nudge teams toward earlier call-ups by attaching meaningful bonuses and draft incentives to genuine big-league debuts. Clubs now receive draft-pick compensation if a top-100 prospect eclipses certain playing thresholds in his first two seasons. Performance pools have been expanded, rewarding players, and by extension, their teams, with increased postseason shares if their early contributions propel a playoff run. Even marketing and sponsorship revenues tied to “rookie sensations” have grown more lucrative. These changes were designed to realign competitive and financial interests in favor of immediate promotion.

Yet in practice, many front offices remain loath to promote prospects earlier than the traditional timetable. Clubs cite lingering injury risk, concerns over a player’s readiness against veteran competition, and the volatility of untested talent. They worry that once the service clock starts ticking, there’s no going back, even if a lineup’s cohesion stumbles or the player slumps. Plus, the monetary value of a single extra year of arbitration-controlled salary often still outweighs draft-pick sweeteners. As a result, service-time manipulation persists as an institutional reflex.

Resolving this tension will require stronger safeguards and brighter incentives. The union could push for automatic service credits based on performance milestones rather than calendar days, or introduce sliding-scale bonuses that eclipse the value of an extra arbitration year. Independent panels might arbitrate borderline call-up cases to remove roster decisions from purely financial motives. Until then, the tug-of-war between payroll control and fair opportunity will continue shaping the trajectories of baseball’s brightest young stars.