I have a suggestion for this that I believe that I mentioned about this time last year. I would love to see a calendar system used, similar to the season calendar. This is my idea, after the season ends you use a normal calendar for the off season. Things like last day to agree to arbitration, the winter meetings, and other key dates would be included.
The first couple of weeks after the season players will announce their retirement and teams can contact free agents and let them know of their interest. Players who want to stay with their current team will resign with them. As the winter meetings approached the free agents would begin to sign, on a day by day basis. Each team could put in a bid each day and when things slowed down for a player for a couple of days he could then sign with the team of his choice. This would also allow teams to make trades and free up more money to sign players that they want, similar to what the Met's have done to try to sign Gonzalez. I realize that this would make the off season last longer, but it would also be a better way to make the game more realistic.
I would love to share more thoughts and details with people to see how they feel. I think this idea allows for a lot more things to be added to the game as well. Things such as salary arbitration, rule V draft, and the addition of other off season issues.
What do you think?
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