� A �Time-Served� player is a player who is paid on a daily basis for as long as he is on the MLB team. This was already discussed in trading where a player�s salary is broken up between two teams based on how long he was with each team. This same principle applies to players who were drafted into the league or if they were added from free agency before the upcoming season begins. If a player is on one team for the full season 100% of his salary will be paid. If the player is placed on the DL or sent down to Triple A, say for one day, you will have to pay 99% of his salary.
� �Full Pay� Players are players who were not drafted into the league but who were later added via free agency after the season is in progress. With Full Pay players no matter when they were added you are required to pay their entire salary so long as they are on the MLB roster for at least one day and remain on either the MLB roster or the Triple A roster over the course of the season.
The issue with trying to make all players �Time-Served� or all �Full Pay� is that there are different dynamics depending on a player�s role. It certainly makes no sense to have to pay for a player�s full salary if he did not play a full season for extenuating circumstances. For instance, there needed to be a way to properly reprieve a manager for a player being hurt for a time. It also seemed to make more sense that, with a restriction on moves between Triple A and the MLB rosters, you should certainly be rewarded for making the proper call-ups at the proper times. It seemed counter-productive to make a manager pay full price for calling up players when perhaps certain players were added with the intention of only being used late in the season � like a prospect. This is why it only made sense to make certain players �Time-Served.�
However, there clearly was an issue with making, all players "time served" because, as stated above, a manager could just play a merry-go-round style since he would be releasing players on a time-served basis at probably 1 cent or so. And so, it only made sense to make a manager pay full price regardless of when he was added. The obvious benefit of this is it only strengthens the importance of having a great Triple A team.