OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Contract length: Players should be more flexible (for a price)

Matt Arnold · 06-11-2016, 11:15 AM

We keep debating on how the counter offer should work. If he wants one and you want 4, should he reply back with what it would take your years, or keep going with his original length? To me there's good and bad to either one, and I'm not sure which one necessarily makes more sense, especially if he's not overly interested in multiple years.

Otherwise, players will shift demands for multiple year offers. For guys before free agency, they will sign to eat up their arbitration years, but you're going to have to pay them essentially their arb value for each year. So say you have a guy whose next 4 arbitration contracts would be something like 2m/4m/6m/8m if you ended up going year to year on him, he will very likely still sign for 4 years/20M. But on a 1 year deal, he'll ask for 1 year/2M. Arbitration salaries can rise fast, and players are not necessarily going to give away those years, but if you think about their future years, they will likely be willing to sign away pre-FA years.

And similar with older players. If a guy is 39 and asking for 15M, it's not going to take 2/30 to sign him to a 2 year deal - but the level of discount that he's willing to give you to go 2 years might not be the same as the level of discount that you'd expect him to take. Just because he's asking for 1 year doesn't mean he won't be willing to cut you a deal to lock in a few more years.

06-11-2016, 11:15 AM	#2
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 16,244	We keep debating on how the counter offer should work. If he wants one and you want 4, should he reply back with what it would take your years, or keep going with his original length? To me there's good and bad to either one, and I'm not sure which one necessarily makes more sense, especially if he's not overly interested in multiple years. Otherwise, players will shift demands for multiple year offers. For guys before free agency, they will sign to eat up their arbitration years, but you're going to have to pay them essentially their arb value for each year. So say you have a guy whose next 4 arbitration contracts would be something like 2m/4m/6m/8m if you ended up going year to year on him, he will very likely still sign for 4 years/20M. But on a 1 year deal, he'll ask for 1 year/2M. Arbitration salaries can rise fast, and players are not necessarily going to give away those years, but if you think about their future years, they will likely be willing to sign away pre-FA years. And similar with older players. If a guy is 39 and asking for 15M, it's not going to take 2/30 to sign him to a 2 year deal - but the level of discount that he's willing to give you to go 2 years might not be the same as the level of discount that you'd expect him to take. Just because he's asking for 1 year doesn't mean he won't be willing to cut you a deal to lock in a few more years.