Which provision historically bound players to one team and limited salary growth in Major League Baseball?

• A. Reserve Clause
• B. Seitz Rule
• C. ProServ
• D. NIL

Answer: (A)

The reserve clause is the mechanism that bound players to a single team. It allowed the club to renew a player's contract automatically and kept the player’s rights with that team, making it very hard for players to move to another organization. Because players couldn’t pursue free agency, there was little competition to drive up salaries, so wage growth remained limited and team control over rosters stayed strong for many years. This dynamic persisted until the Seitz ruling in 1975, which effectively ended the reserve clause and ushered in free agency, dramatically changing players’ ability to negotiate salaries. The other options don’t fit this scenario: the Seitz decision ended the binding, ProServ is a sports agency, and NIL concerns college athletes’ rights, not MLB labor history.