Post by D Backs GM (Tyler) on Feb 19, 2018 15:44:39 GMT -5
Welcome to the offseason FA!
Here is a rules refresher:
SHORT VERSION:
- Send bids to the MLBPA account in a single PM if possible (esp if you are using lists).
- You may use priority lists (if I don't sign A, then sign B... 2 from list A, 3 from list B, etc)
- ALL Bids must include:
- AAS
- Total money
- Yearly breakdown
- Read about back loading and front loading below if you are worried about your bid.
- Deadline to post players for this period is Wed night at 11:59pm. Deadline to submit bids is Fri at 10am Eastern.
Detailed version (from our rules section):
FA Basics
A player not listed on any franchise’s roster is considered a free agent. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB affiliates. No player that was drafted in that year's June Rule IV draft can be signed as a FA, until the offseason draft has concluded.
All international signings that are not eligible for the draft (i.e. they are over 23 years old) can be signed as FA as soon as they have signed a deal with a ML team. All international FA who are eligible for the draft, must go through the draft process once, before being eligible for FA.
FA Bidding Requirements
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via a PM to the MLBPA account. Only the league office has access to this account.
Bids may be submitted by one message for each player or as one message including all player’s bid on by that GM.
Regardless of the form, all bids must include
i. The player’s name
ii. Number of years of the contract offer
iii. Total amount of the contract offer
iv. Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
v. a breakdown of the contract per year or note it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Red Sox offer Player A:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2006 - $7M
2007 - $9M
2008 - $11M
2009 - $11M
2010 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
Bid Restrictions
1. The league minimum is $400k/yr.
2. The longest you may offer a contract with an AAS of the league minimum is 2 years.
3. The longest you may offer a contract with an AAS of less than $750k is 3 years.
4. The longest you may offer ANY contract is 6 years.
5. The highest single year salary of a contract may not exceed AAS times 2.5.
6. The lowest single year salary of a contract may not be less than 40% of AAS.
Annual Salary Limitations
Backend loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS.
The league imposes 2 different limitations to help minimize abusive back loading. Those three categories are:
MLB players with AAS < $8M
MLB players with AAS 8M or more
MLB Players with AAS < $8M:
The total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
Example - Player with a 5 year contract totaling $35.5M (AAS = $7.1M) and annual salaries of $2.84M, $2.84M, $2.84M, $9.23M and 17.75M. This contract is legal from standpoint of low (40% AAS) and high (250% AAS) yearly salaries. BUT, the last 1/2 of the contract has salaries of $28.4M, or 80% of the contract, and is, therefore, invalid. An additional $3.55M would have to be moved into years 1 or 2.
MLB Players with AAS $8M or More:
The total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 65% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
Example - Player with a 5 year contract totaling $100M (AAS = $20M) and annual salaries of $8M, $8M, $8M, $26M and $50M. This contract is legal from standpoint of low (40% AAS) and high (250% AAS) yearly salaries. BUT, the last 1/2 of the contract has salaries of $28.4M, or 80% of the contract, and is, therefore, invalid. An additional $15M would have to be moved into years 1 or 2.
A bid submitted is permanent - once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
PP vs Regular Contract bids:
Minor League PP Contracts go to:
- Anyone from the MLB Amateur Draft who signed.
- Anyone who has been in the Minors for more than a season.
- Any IFAs signed this season under 23.
One of the above AND the player must be UNDER the 150AB/50IP threshold.
Major leauge contracts go to:
- IFAs 23 and over.
- Anyone OVER the 150AB/50IP threshold.
IX. FA Process
For a player to be bid upon, a GM must post him in the FA Posting Section.
i. The GM should include the player’s name, his position, and his MLB team
ii. If there are alternative names the player goes by, the GM can include those as well.
To be bid upon for that FA period, all players must be posted by Wednesday 11:59PM EST. Any player posted after that deadline will not be eligible for bidding that period, but will be up for bid the following week.
GMs than may submit bids for as many players that have been properly posted as they choose. All bids must be received by the MLBPA account by Friday 10AM EST. All bids must conform to the requirements outlined in the FA Bidding Requirements Section
One of the commissioners will examine bids after the bidding deadline and release the bids by the following Monday. There are instances where both commissioners are unable to get to the bids, but hopefully that won’t happen often.
The commissioner’s will declare winners and lock the thread, abiding by the tiebreaker system outlined below, if applicable and by the GMs priority list, if applicable. See Below for Rules governing Tiebreakers and Priority Lists.
If a player is properly posted for bid, and receives no bids, he is not eligible to be bid upon unless he is reposted properly. For example if Player A is posted in week 1 and receives no bids, if a GM wishes to bid on him during week 2, he must repost Player A in the FA Postings section.
FA Tiebreakers
Players will be awarded to the team that offers the highest AAS salary.
If there are multiple teams who offered the same AAS, whichever team offered the most years (and subsequently the most overall value) will be declared the winner.
In the event that multiple teams offer the same AAS and same number of years, whichever GM submitted their bid first will be declared the winner.
Priority Lists
In some situations there may be more players up for bid in which your roster/cap does not allow you to have, but would like to take a stab at all of them in hopes of landing 1. In that case you may send a priority list to the MLBPA account.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Here is a rules refresher:
SHORT VERSION:
- Send bids to the MLBPA account in a single PM if possible (esp if you are using lists).
- You may use priority lists (if I don't sign A, then sign B... 2 from list A, 3 from list B, etc)
- ALL Bids must include:
- AAS
- Total money
- Yearly breakdown
- Read about back loading and front loading below if you are worried about your bid.
- Deadline to post players for this period is Wed night at 11:59pm. Deadline to submit bids is Fri at 10am Eastern.
Detailed version (from our rules section):
FA Basics
A player not listed on any franchise’s roster is considered a free agent. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB affiliates. No player that was drafted in that year's June Rule IV draft can be signed as a FA, until the offseason draft has concluded.
All international signings that are not eligible for the draft (i.e. they are over 23 years old) can be signed as FA as soon as they have signed a deal with a ML team. All international FA who are eligible for the draft, must go through the draft process once, before being eligible for FA.
FA Bidding Requirements
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via a PM to the MLBPA account. Only the league office has access to this account.
Bids may be submitted by one message for each player or as one message including all player’s bid on by that GM.
Regardless of the form, all bids must include
i. The player’s name
ii. Number of years of the contract offer
iii. Total amount of the contract offer
iv. Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
v. a breakdown of the contract per year or note it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Red Sox offer Player A:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2006 - $7M
2007 - $9M
2008 - $11M
2009 - $11M
2010 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
Bid Restrictions
1. The league minimum is $400k/yr.
2. The longest you may offer a contract with an AAS of the league minimum is 2 years.
3. The longest you may offer a contract with an AAS of less than $750k is 3 years.
4. The longest you may offer ANY contract is 6 years.
5. The highest single year salary of a contract may not exceed AAS times 2.5.
6. The lowest single year salary of a contract may not be less than 40% of AAS.
Annual Salary Limitations
Backend loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS.
The league imposes 2 different limitations to help minimize abusive back loading. Those three categories are:
MLB players with AAS < $8M
MLB players with AAS 8M or more
MLB Players with AAS < $8M:
The total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
Example - Player with a 5 year contract totaling $35.5M (AAS = $7.1M) and annual salaries of $2.84M, $2.84M, $2.84M, $9.23M and 17.75M. This contract is legal from standpoint of low (40% AAS) and high (250% AAS) yearly salaries. BUT, the last 1/2 of the contract has salaries of $28.4M, or 80% of the contract, and is, therefore, invalid. An additional $3.55M would have to be moved into years 1 or 2.
MLB Players with AAS $8M or More:
The total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 65% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
Example - Player with a 5 year contract totaling $100M (AAS = $20M) and annual salaries of $8M, $8M, $8M, $26M and $50M. This contract is legal from standpoint of low (40% AAS) and high (250% AAS) yearly salaries. BUT, the last 1/2 of the contract has salaries of $28.4M, or 80% of the contract, and is, therefore, invalid. An additional $15M would have to be moved into years 1 or 2.
A bid submitted is permanent - once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
PP vs Regular Contract bids:
Minor League PP Contracts go to:
- Anyone from the MLB Amateur Draft who signed.
- Anyone who has been in the Minors for more than a season.
- Any IFAs signed this season under 23.
One of the above AND the player must be UNDER the 150AB/50IP threshold.
Major leauge contracts go to:
- IFAs 23 and over.
- Anyone OVER the 150AB/50IP threshold.
IX. FA Process
For a player to be bid upon, a GM must post him in the FA Posting Section.
i. The GM should include the player’s name, his position, and his MLB team
ii. If there are alternative names the player goes by, the GM can include those as well.
To be bid upon for that FA period, all players must be posted by Wednesday 11:59PM EST. Any player posted after that deadline will not be eligible for bidding that period, but will be up for bid the following week.
GMs than may submit bids for as many players that have been properly posted as they choose. All bids must be received by the MLBPA account by Friday 10AM EST. All bids must conform to the requirements outlined in the FA Bidding Requirements Section
One of the commissioners will examine bids after the bidding deadline and release the bids by the following Monday. There are instances where both commissioners are unable to get to the bids, but hopefully that won’t happen often.
The commissioner’s will declare winners and lock the thread, abiding by the tiebreaker system outlined below, if applicable and by the GMs priority list, if applicable. See Below for Rules governing Tiebreakers and Priority Lists.
If a player is properly posted for bid, and receives no bids, he is not eligible to be bid upon unless he is reposted properly. For example if Player A is posted in week 1 and receives no bids, if a GM wishes to bid on him during week 2, he must repost Player A in the FA Postings section.
FA Tiebreakers
Players will be awarded to the team that offers the highest AAS salary.
If there are multiple teams who offered the same AAS, whichever team offered the most years (and subsequently the most overall value) will be declared the winner.
In the event that multiple teams offer the same AAS and same number of years, whichever GM submitted their bid first will be declared the winner.
Priority Lists
In some situations there may be more players up for bid in which your roster/cap does not allow you to have, but would like to take a stab at all of them in hopes of landing 1. In that case you may send a priority list to the MLBPA account.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A