Okay, so the other day I was watching a game, and they mentioned a player being put on the restricted list. It got me thinking, wait a minute, what does that even mean? Is it like the injured list? And the big question popped into my head: do players on the MLB restricted list get paid? I figured I’d dig into it myself because, honestly, I wasn’t sure.
First off, I had to figure out what this list actually is. It’s not the same as the injured list, that much became clear pretty quickly. The injured list is for, well, injuries. This restricted list seemed… different.
So, I started looking around, you know, just doing some basic searching online, reading through fan forums, trying to piece together what the deal was. It took a bit of clicking and reading because the info wasn’t all in one neat package.
My Hunt for the Answer
I found bits and pieces here and there. Some articles mentioned players refusing to play, others talked about legal troubles, and some just said “unusual circumstances.” That last one is pretty vague, right?
But the consistent thread I kept finding, the thing that answered my main question, was this:
- Generally, players on the restricted list do not get paid their salary.
- They are effectively removed from the active team roster.
- They also don’t count towards the team’s roster limits while they’re on it.
So, the short answer seems to be a pretty firm no. They aren’t playing, they aren’t available to the team for various reasons (sometimes their own doing, sometimes other weird stuff), so the paycheck stops.
What Else I Found Out
While digging, I learned a couple of other interesting things:
Even though they aren’t getting paid and aren’t playing, the player is still technically under contract with the team. The team still holds their rights. They can’t just sign with someone else. They’re in a kind of limbo.
The reasons a player lands on this list can be all over the place. It could be because they decided they didn’t want to play, maybe they got into some legal trouble, or other situations that MLB has to approve. It’s not just one specific reason.
So, yeah, that was my little journey into figuring out the restricted list pay situation. Started with a simple question during a game, did some digging, and found out that, most of the time, those players aren’t seeing their regular game checks while they’re sidelined on that specific list. It makes sense in a way, but it’s definitely different from just being injured.
