Happening in my game as well.
I'm at the end of February in 2010, and A-Rod, Chipper Jones, & Trevor Hoffman have all retired and joined the HOF. The common link is that all three became free agents after the 2008 season and didn't sign with any team the entire year.
There's definitely something up. As I said it's Feb 28th and there are 17 FAs rated 4* or higher and have yet to sign with a team (I can buy veteran players like Jeter or Magglio Ordonez maybe, but Dan Haren or Miggy Cabrera?)
Adding to this is the available $$. The D'Backs have $57 million to spend on free agents. The Yankees (whose entire payroll is now just a shade over $25 million
) have $82 million available to spend.
Maybe I'm missing something, but how can I tweak the financials so this sort of disparity doesn't happen?