Sandwich pick is a type of
draft pick
A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team sele ...
awarded to
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
teams for the loss of
free agents who meet the minimum requirements by the
Elias Rankings. Under the previous
collective bargaining agreement
A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
, there were three categories of free agents, type A, type B, and type C, or unranked.
A sandwich pick is a pick that takes place in the supplemental round between the 1st and 2nd round of the
MLB amateur draft each June and is usually noted as round 1a.
If a type A or type B free agent signs with a team that the player did not finish the previous season with, his former team will receive a sandwich pick for the departed player. As well as the sandwich pick, type A free agents will also net their former team a forfeited pick from the signing team. The forfeited pick is generally the signing team's 1st round draft choice; however, there are certain factors which could result in a different round for the pick. In order for the team to receive a compensation pick, the free agent must be offered
arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or ' arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ...
or be signed by their new team prior to the arbitration deadline.
The order of the supplemental picks is determined by the Elias ranking of each signed free agent. So each sandwich pick awarded for type A free agents would take place before any type B sandwich picks.
Baseball terminology
Major League Baseball draft
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