[bcduggan]

Online league with salary cap

I am currently leading my division and have been a perennial playoff team in the league I am in, since I joined 3-4 seasons ago. The team has had salary cap issues since before I joined them, and I have only made them worse.

Current year $5 million under cap
Current year $10 million over budget, started season at budget though

Following year $5 million above cap
Following year $10 million over budget, estimated

My player development and scouting $ is high, this coupled with trades I have made have added to being over budget.

When offseason happens, I have 3 players getting big raises through arbitration, $10 million combined will be added to salary.

Losing 2 players to FA, would like to sign 1 before season ends. However, I am over budget by the amount listed above. I expect to be over by same amount next season as this season. The player I would like to sign would make roughly 40% next year of what he made this year.

I have an injured player who makes a good chunk of money, this year and next year. I probably need to release him to try to be able to resign the arbitration eligible players. The release of said player will put me below the salary cap next year.

My questions are:

If I release the player in question, could it reduce my budget for next year? I am afraid that it might do that.

The owner has controlling fiscal personality, when going after FA/offering extensions in offseason, would I need to worry about the budget or would that only come into play during the season?