That'd have to fall under tampering Why? He's not signed with any team at that point. Shady negotiating tactics, yes, but tampering, I don't think it qualifies. It's coming to a verbal agreement with somebody you're ineligible to sign. It's not unlike entering a verbal contract with a 15 year old. Now the Dodgers case was worse because it was a written contract, and they likely enacted in fraud by fudging the birth year for Beltre, but it's still circumventing the rules in place to come to an agreement with a player you're not allowed to. The Cubs are allowed to sign Moncada, it just has to be for 250K before July 2nd. They're allowed to negotiate and discuss with him all they want so I don't know why they can't say, well we can offer you 250K today, but if you wait until July 2nd we can offer you 45M. It's not tampering because they are allowed to negotiate with him. I'd expect the commissioner's office to be pretty pissed off, but I don't see anything that circumvents it.