Upward Mobility Clause

What are they, and how do they work?

As Spring Training winds down, it’s a time where roster battles are starting to get decided and spots are on the line. For players on the 40-man roster, that may mean the difference between being optioned or staying in the majors, but for non-roster invitees the implications are different.

For some, it may just mean being reassigned to the minors, with hopes of getting a call later in the season. For others—often experienced veterans—there are contractual clauses that leave them more in control of their destiny, with an Upward Mobility Clause a prime example.

An Upward Mobility Clause—UMC for short, or also sometimes referred to as an “Assignment Clause”—allows a player to force the hand of their current team in an effort to get a spot on the roster that they otherwise don’t already have, and here’s how it works.

If by a certain date a player hasn’t been added to the roster—either Reserved or Active List, depending on the terms—they have 24 hours to trigger the UMC, which starts the ball rolling on a series of logistical roster events. After the player sets the process in motion, that allows other teams to express interest in them—another 24-hour period—and finally, the players’ current team has 48 hours to either add them to the roster or trade them to the other team. If the player triggers the clause and no teams are interested, nothing has to happen—they can just stick around until their inevitable next decision date or something else happens in the meantime. Because of this, there is really no reason not to at least test the waters and see what happens.

So, if all of the dates and hour periods were a little confusing, here is an example to illustrate the process:

If a player has a March 20^th Upward Mobility Clause, they have until March 21^st to invoke the clause, leaving interested teams to inquire no later than March 22^nd and the players’ current team no later than March 24^th to make their final decision after said inquiries.

If a veteran ends up getting added to a roster off of a minor league contract, it doesn’t always mean they are in the clear or guaranteed anything—there are usually additional clauses in the contract that allow for assignment to the minors (Advanced Consent, a topic for another day) with a lower salary, which allow teams to outright the player to the minors, often resulting in an election of free agency and looking for another job on the open market.

But, making a big-league roster is always preferred, with those considerations an issue down the road if and when necessary.