It was noted on Baseball America today by Matt Eddy, that the contracts for Brandon Inge and Jonathan Sanchez has some new stipulations that came along with the latest MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement. The new contracts come with three clauses and are applicable for any major league free agents that sign minor league deals. They are as follows:
A) They must be told five days prior to Opening Day whether or not they made the team.
B) If they don’t ask for their release and agree to open the season in AAA, they will receive a $100,000 “retention bonus”
C) If they are still in AAA by June 1st, they can opt out of the contract, so they are able to sign with another organization
Despite having enough service time in, Brad Hawpe doesn’t qualify for the same stipulations because he wasn’t a major league free agent at the end of the 2012 season.