Relief pitchers not getting signed

[sprague]

Wanted to pass this along what I have noticed
Fictional game. Started right off an inaugural draft/
Now next March. All that are left on the free agent list are relievers, and a ton of them.
4 5 star closers
10 3-4 star relievers
and a bunch of others as well

Teams have money still to spend, but no one is making an offer to any of them. they sit unoffered

Are the rest of you seeing the same thing in your games?

[Lr10540]

Yup. I got Zach Britton on a really cheap deal and Andrew Miller only wanted 6.5 million. There was a few others but those are the two I remember off the top of my head.

[Calvert98]

There are some deals, but I also have noticed big contracts for proven big-name RPs (especially CLs). In my league (MLB Standard from 2017; an OOTP 18 import), Britton was signed for a some fairly big money by the Los Angeles Angels ; I couldn’t keep him. I think it was a short-term contract (2 years?), but far north of $10 million. When I get a chance, I will check.

[NoOne]

it's possible for a closer to get upwards of $18 million or even higher if there is a lot of revenue in your league.

think some RP in real life signed for 18-20ish too, eh? i wouldn't pay that much but out of 30 gm's some are bound to be terrible at financial management and overvalueing players.

do you have ratings relative to position? i think this makes RP look sexier, maybe?

i believe it is default, so unless you changed somethign it is already setup this way.. ** i think.

[Eumel]

Seeing this every season in a reproducible manner. Typically it goes like this (standard fictional league):

- Top relievers demand $14M+
- No computer team makes an offer
- During spring training, all unsigned relievers have dropped their demand to less than half
- Now the AI teams will start to offer 1-year contracts
- Some time near the end of spring, or even during the first two weeks of the seasons all relievers have signed one-year contracts

Multi-year contracts for relievers have been very rare because of that. Also, I've seen a lot of them hold out until the season had already started, signing for less than half of their original demand.

It seems that the gap between the self-evaluation of the relievers and the way the AI teams see them simply is too big. If AI teams are only willing to pay $6-9M max per year to relievers, it doesn't help if they want twice the amount every time.

So I agree that this could use some tweaking in a future patch.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by Eumel

Seeing this every season in a reproducible manner. Typically it goes like this (standard fictional league):

- Top relievers demand $14M+
- No computer team makes an offer
- During spring training, all unsigned relievers have dropped their demand to less than half
- Now the AI teams will start to offer 1-year contracts
- Some time near the end of spring, or even during the first two weeks of the seasons all relievers have signed one-year contracts

Multi-year contracts for relievers have been very rare because of that. Also, I've seen a lot of them hold out until the season had already started, signing for less than half of their original demand.

It seems that the gap between the self-evaluation of the relievers and the way the AI teams see them simply is too big. If AI teams are only willing to pay $6-9M max per year to relievers, it doesn't help if they want twice the amount every time.

So I agree that this could use some tweaking in a future patch.

This I am seeing a bit, however I am still seeing big contracts too. I forgot to check on Zach's but a I will. However, we also saw this somewhat generally this off-season. Heck, even a couple of years ago I think when it comes to RPs.

And I think we are going to see this more often in the future. Not sure that trend, which was noted in Michael Lewis's book about the over-valuation of CLs (and by likely RPs), hasn't been noticed by clubs.

Perhaps OOTPD is ahead of curve....

That said, I'm not saying there is Not-an issue. If enough folks are seeing this, it probably needs to be checked to make sure it's working correctly.

[Silfir]

Don't trust appearances. I'm also finding a lot of top relievers, but while the Demand shown in the list goes down, when I actually go to offer them a contract, some of them will tell me they're already in negotations and I will have to top some other team's offered amount, which is much higher than the listed Demand.

Basically, the Demand is shown going down for all players over the time they remain unsigned, but the reason they remain unsigned may be that they're still in negotations and just in no hurry to sign. (That's another thing I notice - players that I make an offer just as free agents file, and they send me a Negotiation update ("Yours is the best offer right now") in January and sign right before spring training, without me doing anything beyond sending the initial offer.)

All of this is going on in my fictional league, so I don't know how representative it is of the MLB start. There are some ridiculous contracts at the moment since it's only two seasons after league creation and teams just have too much money.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by Silfir

Don't trust appearances. I'm also finding a lot of top relievers, but while the Demand shown in the list goes down, when I actually go to offer them a contract, some of them will tell me they're already in negotations and I will have to top some other team's offered amount, which is much higher than the listed Demand.

Basically, the Demand is shown going down for all players over the time they remain unsigned, but the reason they remain unsigned may be that they're still in negotations and just in no hurry to sign. (That's another thing I notice - players that I make an offer just as free agents file, and they send me a Negotiation update ("Yours is the best offer right now") in January and sign right before spring training, without me doing anything beyond sending the initial offer.)

.

Ok, then that sort of makes sense. I haven't been in the market that much for RPs, but that somewhat jives from the news reports I'm getting at my front-office.

Have any other folks noticed this?

[NoOne]

sort existing players limited to CL or RP above a certain threshold etc..

add a column for salary value... 1 offseason or a few can still be weird to teh eye..

is this early on in a new league with real players... first few years my be different. mixing real life strats for contracts and converting to ootp ai choices etc...

sounds like an awesome problem though, lol. in ootp18 i could find good cl at 6-8m/year.

[geisterhome]

Originally Posted by Silfir

Don't trust appearances. I'm also finding a lot of top relievers, but while the Demand shown in the list goes down, when I actually go to offer them a contract, some of them will tell me they're already in negotations and I will have to top some other team's offered amount, which is much higher than the listed Demand.

Basically, the Demand is shown going down for all players over the time they remain unsigned, but the reason they remain unsigned may be that they're still in negotations and just in no hurry to sign.

This might happen once in a while but for sure it's rather uncommon. Usually Top RP will not get signed until they lower their demand drastically.


This is first february, if you scroll down it's not any different, 90% relievers with a few position players and SP.
I think that should be addressed.

[malichai11]

Preseason is when their demands are at the lowest, but I've also gotten in huge 1-year bidding wars with teams. They start by asking for 2m and end up getting 10m+. Especially if you wait too long. You really have to strike right at the start of preseason.

[kehowey]

I am seeing the same thing. There are some real bargains in relief pitching at the beginning of preseason. I manage a small market team and the beginning of preseason is the only time I try to improve my bullpen.

[NoOne]

i meant existing contracts...

if 20/30 teams have an expensive closer, their wont be much demand for a 15-20m RP/cl etc..

screenshot looks fine.. the top guys are stil near 10m and they are older rp at 31/33..one straggler.

there can be a rational cause as to why you see this with FA. eliminate that possiblity and others.. and you can post somethign in bugs forum that is more likely to be a real problem.

it sounds like a magic bullet, but it isn't.. you can wait for preseason, but if you guess wrong and have to sign inferior players, it won't seem so cool. waiting definitely can make a demand cheaper, but it also reduces viable choices. it's not all gravy.

[Padreman]

Weird in my league all relivers max out at 45/80 none go above 45

[Calvert98]

So, I checked and Zach B. in 2020, received a $12 million 1-year contract.

[geisterhome]

It was the same situation a month later. the money demand went down even more. but actually the amount of money they want isn't my major gripe, if anything it's maybe a bit too low but nothing I would even find worth mentioning here.

But why do pretty much all other players get signed just all better relievers remain unsigned till march. If nothing else it's too predictable, you don't have to rush to sign anyone for big money early cos you simply know there will be premium relievers till late and they will want much less money.

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[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by geisterhome

But why do pretty much all other players get signed just all better relievers remain unsigned till march. If nothing else it's too predictable, you don't have to rush to sign anyone for big money early cos you simply know there will be premium relievers till late and they will want much less money.

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If enough people are seeing it, this may be more the crux of it in terms of game-play. It would be too easy for the human manager to "game" the market.

Again, although I have seen some things mentioned here, overall I haven't seen what folks describing in this thread; however,I have only gone through 1 off-season thus far with OOTP 19, so my sample size is of course not sufficient enough.

[jaguar8311]

I have noticed this too. It's not just relievers. In general, Superstars are signing cheap, unrealistic contracts.

the problem is teams will usually use up their free agent budget signing a bunch of cheaper players. Now no one has money for a superstar so they get a stupidly cheap contract. In real life teams would prioritize allocating money to sign a superstar first, rather than locking up a few old middle relievers, 4th outfielder, and a backup catcher and then assuming Mike Trout or Bryce Harper will sign for 15-20M a year

[Gorinski]

I'm also seeing this in my fictional league. Many unsigned good relievers.

[wallewalls]

All the best relievers for me in my games are always usually unsigned for me going into the season and they always sign one year contracts and end up in the same cycle every single offseason. If I had the funds I would be elated!