Free agency or stay with team?
 

What is the percentage of real life players that enter free agency vs. elect to renew with their current team? What are the typical sweeteners the player's current team uses to entice the player to forego free agency? Does OOTP model this correctly, at least as far as the % of players that enter free agency?

While I am sure there is a percentage you could find that re-sign v leave for free agency its hardly that simple in real life. There are too many factors such as the players family (are they happy there? is the player?), the player's agent (determined to get the biggest deal v hometown discount?), ownership's commitment to winning and commitment to keeing the player, etc. Those are just a few factors. OOTP does have similarities. There are players that contact you via message to let you know they want to stay. There are some who will go to free agency regardless, just like real life.

Interesting. I'm playing my first season of OOTP ever and I'm wondering if I should resign my upcoming free agents or wait till free agency. So is there usually a good amount of high profile free agents? So far I saw some top players like robinson cano and few others already already resign with their franchises before they could hit free agency.

I always try to extend my players I want to keep before they go free agent. I also try to extend players that are going to get fat raises in arbitration. You can save a lot of money by doing this. If you let them hit the free agent market their asking price starts at ridiculous and goes up from there. I have yet to actually sign a big free agent in my game because they will hem and haw for months on end and then sign with a AI team for way more money than I am willing to give them. If you don't think you can sign them due to cost or the fact they are just plain jerks when you try, then trade them and at least get something out of the deal.

hmm...sounds like OOTP is pretty realistic then... :)

Too realistic sometimes. There are a few of my ex-players that wanted way more money than I was willing to pay them, and even though I know it's just a computer sim and they don't actually exist, I truly hold a grudge against them. It's especially bad when they are on the opposing team come playoff time. My worst nightmare is to lose a playoff series because one of my ex-players went off against us.