This was from a MLB pension plan booklet.
[I]Credited Service
The first factor in determining your pension benefit is your credited service.
“Credited service” is generally defined as the sum of your active service and national defense service. Your active service generally includes the days during a championship season that you are an active member on a club’s active list. You earn one year of credited service if you are in active status for a full championship season. If you are not in active status for a full championship season, you earn 14 of a year of credited service for each cumulative 43 days of active service you complete during a championship season.
Generally, if you are on option with a Minor League club, you do not earn credited service until you are recalled and physically report to your club for active service. However, you will earn credited service while on option to a Minor League club if you remain on option for less than 20 total days during a championship season.
Note: If you are in Retirement Class VIII or Class IX, the Pension Plan uses a maximum of 10 years of service to determine your benefit.
Your Benefit for a Partial Year of Credited Service
The benefit amount you receive for a partial year of credited service (14 of a year for each 43 days of active service during a championship season) is interpolated from the value for full years of credited service based on your age at retirement set forth on the fixed and assumed variable benefit tables to account for a partial year of service.
Additional Details on Credited Service
See “Credited Service,” “Active Service,” and “National Defense Service” in Understanding
Your Benefits for more information about these terms.
Your Age When Benefits Begin
The second factor in determining your pension benefit is your age when retirement benefits begin.
You may start receiving benefits from the Pension Plan when you reach your normal retirement date (even if you are still on the active list or otherwise employed by a Major League club). Your normal retirement date is determined by your Class, which is determined by the last championship season in which you had active service. (In this Benefits Handbook,
this is also called your “normal retirement age.”)
If You Had Active Service in These
Championship Seasons… Your Normal Retirement Age Is…
1970 or later (Classes VIII and IX) 62nd birthday
After September 30, 1946 through 1969, 65th birthday
but not after 1969 (Classes VI and VII)
You can start receiving benefits before your normal retirement age, beginning as early as the first day of the month following your 45th birthday, if you are no longer employed by a Major League club or its affiliates (including a Minor League club owned by a Major League club)
in any capacity. However, the Pension Plan pays benefits for your lifetime, so the younger you are when payments start, the longer the Pension Plan expects your benefits to continue, and the smaller your monthly benefit will be.
If you continue in active service past your normal retirement age, your retirement benefit is calculated to reflect any additional benefit you may have earned during the plan year that just ended or that you are entitled to receive.
If you apply for your retirement benefit after your normal retirement age, you will receive a lump-sum payment equal to the amount you would have received during the period of time commencing on your normal retirement age and ending on the date your monthly benefit payments actually begin.
In no event can your retirement date be later than April 1 following the later of the year you reach age 7012 or the last calendar year in which you earn credited service.