Last updated 5/26/2020

Click here to view the 1969 Expansion Draft Order by Round page.

1969 Pre-Expansion Draft Trades

1969 Expansion Draft rules

Expansion teams will not be able to make trades before the Expansion Draft.  Such trading would have a negative effect on the expansion pool.

Existing teams will be allowed to make trades before the Expansion Draft, subject to the following conditions:

–  Teams may make unlimited even player-for-player trades (no 2-for-1 or 3-for-2).  All traded players must be protected by the receiving teams.  If Annual Draft picks are included, each team must give up the same number of picks.  This type of trade really doesn’t hurt the pool.

–  Teams will be allowed to participate in no more than two trades in which a player is traded for a draft pick.  They can make one trade where they are giving up a player for a pick, and one trade where they are receiving a player for a pick.  The player must be protected by the receiving team.  The team trading the player will only receive one Annual Draft pick, and they must give a lower pick back in return.  Most importantly, all Annual Draft picks included in this type of trade must be #6 or better.  Picks #7 through #12 may not be used in this type of trade until after the Expansion Draft.

All existing teams will cut to fourteen players on the Active Roster.  The rest go on your Farm roster.  This should be done as an f-file, but can be done as a list.

The four new teams will then select players from the Farm Organization in an Expansion Draft.

This will be done in six rounds of sixteen picks, four per new team each round.  A rotating selection order will be used – ABCD, BCDA, CDAB, DABC.

There will be no automatic pullbacks by the existing teams.  After each round, existing teams will reclaim as many players as they lost in that round from their Farm team.  If no players were lost that round, none are reclaimed.  In Rounds 1, 2, and 3, teams can lose no more than two players.  In Rounds 4, 5, and 6, there are no limits.

Once a team has lost ten players total (which probably will only happen to a few teams), they are excused from the Expansion Draft.  Any remaining players on their Farm team will be reclaimed, so they will have at least 24 players.

Each round will be limited to two days, with the goal of making at least eight picks a day.  The draft will begin with individual e-mail picks.  Teams can submit daily lists if they choose.  On the second day, lists will be required by 9 PM Eastern Time for any unmade picks in that round.

After Round 6, the new teams will be at 24 players.  The existing teams will then reclaim any remaining players from their Farm team.  All existing teams already own at least 34 players who will be on the 1969 disk, so there will be players to reclaim.

At this point, there will be a normal pre-draft trading period.

The Annual Draft will then be done in the usual manner for twelve rounds.  Any team that has more than 24 players after the Expansion Draft will have to cut to 24 before the Annual Draft.

In all Annual Draft rounds, the new teams will have the first four picks.  The same rotating selection order will be used.  The twelve returning teams will draft after them, in the normal reverse-record order.

The deadline for submitting protected lists is Tuesday, June 2 at 9 PM Pacific Time. This allows two weeks for making cuts.

The Expansion Draft will begin around Friday, June 5 and is scheduled to run for twelve days or less.

There will then be a pre-draft trading period of at least ten days, probably two weeks, before the Annual Draft.