Ok, I was toying with the demo and posted in the main forums, but decided to post something here. I imported my online league (UBL) in 2017. Left everything at default and simmed to the All-Star break.
From my observations, it appears that the AI signs guys who are arbitration eligible to really cheap deals, and guys who are in their late 30's to enormous deals in both length and amount. I'll post some examples.
Charles Toch was inked by the O's for 7 years at 20M per year. Granted he's an all-star, but this will put him under a huge contract until he's 40.
In comparison, 30 year old ace
Berny Rodriguez who has a few Cy Youngs, is extended by Seattle for just 3 years at about 8.9M per.
Dylan Niven, Cleveland's 28 year old stud was extended for a meager 3.8M per year for 3 years. He was making more in arbitration and still had 2 years of it left!
Speaking of Cleveland, they sign journeyman MR/SP
JP Duran for 3 years at 6+ per year (at age 37). Meanwhile, All-Star closer
Ricky Cashion gets a 3 year deal worth a total of 4M, including a final year of 300k.
Oakland inked a 35 year old injury prone steup man
Jason Bergman for 4 years at 8+ per year. He's pitched a whopping 16 innings at the break.
Thomas Skillman, reigning Cy Young and 29 year old stud, inked for 3yrs at 8M per. Not terrible, but considering what Bergman got, it's completely inexplicable.
I could go on, but the basic premise here is that the AI extensions while guys are in arbitration is silly. It appears to me that the AI pays more attention to what the players are making rather than ratings or stats. Bergman is a prime example. He was making 8.5M a year (from a prior 4-5 year deal) so the AI threw 8.5M at him again. Probably the same thing for Cashion...he's making 1.5M in arbitration, therefore he should sign a deal worth less.