21-09 Official Ruling Involving Elijah Mitchell

Rule H.6. clearly states the players in trades agreed upon but not yet completed are ineligible for both teams during the processing period. The obvious intent of this rule was that items involved in the trade would be on hold until the trade was processed. In the trade between JWW and UGG the result was that UGG would owe $6 more in salary thus reducing his FAAB from $56 to $50. Using the intent of rule H.6., the $6 UGG set aside to meet the terms of the trade was also on hold. This makes his $55 bid on Elijah Mitchell, which is over his available FAAB void and the next highest bidder is the winner. While a case could be made that UGG would have bid the max he had available I won't ever assume future actions in a ruling. This ruling is final unless an owner initiates the grievance process in rule A.2.i.