No Free Agency

[Tullius]

When you use financials you have to option to turn off Free Agency. What i have seen is that players still have contracts and this contract will be extended automatically. Does it mean a player will have the same salary the whole career when he is not released or can file for arbitration ? In the years of the reserve clause a player had at least the option to retire.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Tullius

When you use financials you have to option to turn off Free Agency. What i have seen is that players still have contracts and this contract will be extended automatically. Does it mean a player will have the same salary the whole career when he is not released or can file for arbitration ? In the years of the reserve clause a player had at least the option to retire.

This is an interesting question. To test it, I created a small league and ran it out 10 years with finances on and no free agency.

What I noticed was contracts are renewed as you said, but the money paid follows a realistic career arc, a bell-curve for established players who stick around long enough. That is, they don't make the same amount of money their whole careers.

I did not see any evidence of salary arbitration. Players retired as normal, however.

One thing I can add; although I saw salaries differentiated by talent level and career stage, the overall financial averages remained the same because I never varied the Financial Coefficient number from the default of 1.000.

[Afino]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

This is an interesting question. To test it, I created a small league and ran it out 10 years with finances on and no free agency.

What I noticed was contracts are renewed as you said, but the money paid follows a realistic career arc, a bell-curve for established players who stick around long enough. That is, they don't make the same amount of money their whole careers.

I did not see any evidence of salary arbitration. Players retired as normal, however.

One thing I can add; although I saw salaries differentiated by talent level and career stage, the overall financial averages remained the same because I never varied the Financial Coefficient number from the default of 1.000.

I second that observation.

I play with this way too - with FA off, and finances on. I started my league at 1950 and tried to mirror the real life contract levels, with "superstar" contracts only around $90-$100k and then going down from there. I didn't change the financial coefficient, and I've never really had any issues regarding contracts.

[Le Grande Orange]

Just a little something to be aware of, but I don't think (or at least, if it does, it's news to me) OOTP models the termination pay provisions of the pre-free agency period.

That is, in the free ageny era, free agent contracts are guaranteed and a player will get the rest of the pay due on the contract if released, while players still under the reserve clause get 30 days' pay if released during the off-season and first half of spring training, 45 days' pay if released during the second half of spring training, and their salary for the rest of the season if released during the regular season.

In the reserve clause era, it was very different. Almost all contracts were for one year only, and a player could be released at any time as was owed relatively little termination pay. Prior to 1947, it was just ten days' pay if released during the regular season, and no pay at all if released during the off-season or spring training. From 1947 to 1970, it was thirty days' pay if released during the regular season (and remained no pay if released during the off-season or spring training). From 1972-1976, it was basically 30 days' pay if released during spring training or the off-season, and the rest of the salary for the season if released during the regular season.

Needless to say, the termination pay rates during the reserve clause era meant the cost of cutting players was relatively small, and thus a club could shed players more easily than is the case today.