[Ed.: The first two notes here are actual notes, slightly edited, received by Mr. EFL Answer man today.]

Dear Mr. EFL Answer Man:

I noticed the Indians [Ed: sic] debuted a player today [Ed: ie, in the postseason]. Chase DeLauter. It’s happened before (Mondesi, Weathers, Kiriloff to name a few).

I believe we do NOT include these players in the rookie draft. Correct? Or not?

— Curious in Kansas

Dear Curious:

Yeah, I saw that too. You’re right that we have not included these post-season debs in the rookie draft, in past seasons. You’re also right that they’ll probably appear as debs some time in the next year. 

But I don’t like our rule (or past practice). In general I favor expanding the rookie draft. Not that one player does much of that, but I will always vote in favor of getting a player into a draft as soon as possible.

— Half-a-game Short in Oregon

Dear Curious and Half-a-game:

I hear you, Half-a-game, but DeLauter will still enrich the Rookie Draft… in 2027. In the meantime he can be drafted as a debutant, probably costing whoever gets him only a month’s delay in benefitting from his services.

Our current rule actually EXPANDS our ability to enjoy DeLauter. Consider these points:

a) He can’t be snatched by an MLB team as a debutant, so he’ll be available to an EFL team for sure next year.

b) When he becomes a rookie, he has a good chance of being snatched by an MLB team — which sometimes means we NEVER get to own him since, if he’s a superstar, he can get very expensive by the time he becomes an EFL free agent.

It’s all downside to not send him through a debutant phase.

Of course as we get older the present value of future benefits declines as the odds increase we won’t be around to enjoy those future benefits.  But we don’t know what happens to an EFL franchise on the death of an owner, because it hasn’t happened in 22 seasons.  Maybe it never will!

Even if we someday lose an EFL owner that way, his franchise might be one of the most coveted elements in his estate.  So if you don’t survive to enjoy the 6th year of DeLauter’s stardom, perhaps one of your heirs will.  From an overall utility perspective, nothing would be lost.

Still, it might be interesting to adopt a rule permitting us, during the rookie draft, to bid on a post-season debutant to acquire him AS A DEBUTANT for one year. Post season debutant(s) would be separately listed, unavailable to MLB teams, and could only be drafted as debutants in the year after their post-season debut. An owner would use one of his picks to put the postseason debutant up for bid (or as his pre-emptive first-round pick) but only acquires his debutant rights, not his rookie rights. The post-season debutant would still be available as a rookie in the following year’s rookie draft.

This rule would allow a team to enjoy a post-season debutant in April without having to wait until the end of the month, which apparently is an excruciating wait for at least one person.

— EFL Answer Man