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Free Agency

Each league has a pool of freeFree agentsAgents that includes players cut from other teams and players skipped in the amateurAmateur draft.Draft. Some general guidelines on the free agency system:

  • You can only bid on freeFree agentsAgents in a league which you own a team.
  • Free agentsAgents will only sign during the ''preseason'' and ''regular'' season. They will not sign after the last day of the regular season.
  • Free agentsAgents consider offers during the league's simulation, (meaning the sim has tomust be running). If it'sit preseasonis preseason, they do not make decisions until after each contract offer is submitted.
  • Free agentsAgents will wait a minimum time before making a decision (to give other owners a chance to make counteroffers).counter offers). The actual time depends on the sim rate.
    • 2 games per day league's:leagues: minimumMinimum 4 days from first offer, one day from most recent offer, maximum 8 days from oldest offer.
    • 4 games per day league's:leagues: minimumMinimum 2 days from first offer, 12 hours from most recent offer, maximum 4 days from oldest offer.
    • 8 games per day league's:leagues: minimumMinimum 1 day from first offer, 6 hours from most recent offer, maximum 2 days from oldest offer.

  • Free agentsAgents will always make a contract decision if the highest offer is at least 50% over his base (minimum asking) salary.

Note that "days" are calendar days, not sim days.

Bidding & The Salary Cap

For example, your league has a $50 million salary cap, and your team payroll is at $48 million. You can sign a freeFree agent(s)Agent(s) that will take you all the way to $50,000,000 exactly. If you do bid on more than one player, their bid amounts will count against your teamsteam’s salary for other bids you made. SoSo, you can bid on Player A for $1 million, and Player B for $1 million, but if you want Player C who is also at $1 million, you will need to cut/trade some salary before placing your bid onfor Player C.

Any bids that take you over the salary cap, in this case $50,000,001 and up, will not be processed. You will be prompted with this message from the popup bid box if you try to make a bid that will take you over the salary cap: You“You cannot submit a freeFree agentAgent claim for that much, because it will take your team salary over the league salary cap. Refer to the Sign-N-Drop section for more information.information.”

Free Agent Decision Factors

When you submit an offer to a freeFree agent,Agent, you have the option of offering ''more'' than their asking salary, (this is common when multiple teams are bidding on the same player). If you sign a player at more than his asking salary, the amount offered over the player's base salary will be reduced by 50% each year. If the amount offered ever gets to 10% or less of a player's base salary, it is dropped altogether.

Free agents will not make a decision solely based on salary if he has multiple contract offers. Some of the factors which influence a player's decision to sign with your team include:

  • The winning percentage of your team,team (players prefer winners).
  • Whether or not the player is better than the best player at the same position on your team. If he is better, he'she is more likely to start, so he'she is also more likely to sign. If he'she is worse, he'she is less likely to sign, and may look to play elsewhere.
  • The overall payroll of your team. A higher payroll makes a player less likely to sign, as there is a greater chance of him being cut in the future for salary cap reasons.
  • Whether you have ever cut the player from your team in the past. Players don'tdo not like to go back to teams that previously cut them.

Free Agent Roster Placement

When you sign a freeFree agentAgent, he will join either your AAA or lowLow minors.Minors. If the player has no activeActive rosterRoster experienceexperience, and you have room in your lowLow minorsMinors roster (low(Low minorsMinors has a maximum of 20 players), he will be assigned there. If the player has one or more yearsyear’s playing experience, or if you have insufficient room in your lowLow minorsMinors roster, he will be assigned to AAA. See Minor League Development Bonus

Sign-N-Drop

When placing freeFree agentAgent bids, you are permitted to select up to three players to be dropped from your roster should that freeFree agentAgent sign with your team. This is useful for teams who are currently over the salary cap with no clear path to get back under, or teams who don'tdo not want to lose the production of a current player until the replacement has signed on the dotted line. Sign-N-Drop is not without it'sits limitations:

  • The dropped player(s) salary must be greater than your offer, or your final salary must be below the league salary cap
  • If staying over the cap, the player to be signed must be in the bottom 10 salaried freeFree agentsAgents
  • You must keep at least 14 hitters and 11 pitchers on Active or AAA rosters (including the signed player)
  • The dropped player(s) may not be involved in other pending transactions.transactions

Once a player is included in a Sign-N-Drop transaction, he may not be included in another one until the first one has been cleared or cancelled. Players from your team who are included in Sign-N-Drop transactions may not be dropped from the roster or included in any trade offers.