Time to say goodbye to Cano?

[dnlwrd]

I'm in 2017 and it's time to say goodbye to Robinson Cano. The only problem is I'm having trouble trading him. Any ideas? Is it his contract? Is it his rating? (He's now a 2.5 star player) Is it a combination? Has anyone moved him on or seen him get traded in their save?

[mpejkrm]

A mix of contract and ratings. Even if he was 80/80 I'm pretty sure teams wouldn't want to take on a mid-30's dude with that contract.

[Phantom9in]

try and make a trade for 2 guys who are also 2-2.5 stars and have a combined contract equal to Cano, should be able to get it done.

[dnlwrd]

Cheers for the advice gentlemen, I'll give it a go.

[ms2002]

Could also try sweetening the deal by including another top player, like the recent Kimbrel / Upton trade to the Padres.

[OzzieFan]

This is a problem for EVERY over 32 player it seems. Lots of them have long big contracts. OOTP seems to nerf these players severely. For last three editions... the first thing you have to do when taking over the Cardinals is to offload Wainwright, Holliday, and Molina. If you do not... within 1 - 2 seasons you will have completely useless players.

It's been a pain in my butt for years. I think the game is too hard on older players... I don't see players go from top players (70+) to 20/20 players much in real life... but it happens all the time here.

[Peregrine]

Had the same issue starting the Cubs - Lester was great the first year, then got hurt and rapidly become a decaying shell of his former self - but with a mega contract for several years. Luckily later on he got hurt bad enough he had to retire, saving me tens of millions.

[Dr.K]

Have to admit I had the same problem with the Phillies, with Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz, Cliff Lee to a lesser extent he came back and then got injured and retired. Utley and Hammels had some life in them but I could not get get rid of them, Utley at least was useful for his leadership - but it was difficult and probably the most frustrating save game I've ever had, but addictive! I may have to do it again as I quit in 2019, couldn't take the rebuilding!

What OOTP does highlight really well is how badly structured these deals were IRL. Look at the Yankees with A-Rod and CC.

[dnlwrd]

Looks like I'm not the only one struggling under an albatross of a mega-contract then. I'm stuck paying Cano $24m a year for a good few years unless I can offload him. As it stands at the moment I still can't find any takers without ditching a second 5 star player along with him

[MmmRocks]

Have you offered to pay some of his salary? That's typically what teams do in real life when they have an overpaid, aging player that they're trying to trade.

[ezpkns34]

If you don't care about taking advantage of the AI with a bad trade for them that they shouldn't take and you're willing to upload your save game, then I'd find a Cano trade or 2 for you

Nearly any player is tradable in OOTP if you don't care about taking advantage of the AI (even on very hard trade difficulty)

[ravinhood]

Learn to trade away players at 30 or 31 like I do. I make up big contracts into 10 years sometimes with salary after they turn 30 or 31 into the 35mil value. I got one guy who was 27 for 10 years at 9mil for the first 3 years (till he turned 30) then 21mil for the next 3 years and 35 mil the last 4. lol I'll dump him at 30 for a power young kid and someone else will eat all that salary. The ai will accept trades for high salaried players to a certain point. Someone said 32 but I've made big trades for a player at 35 when he has a high salary. Must be because his stat ratings are still high. Though I couldn't give Michael Young or Kevin Millwood away with their high contracts. Plus Young invoked his no trade clause on me. SOB. lol

I wish it was more detailed about other AI teams taking a player with high salaries. It's so easy and too easy to fool this AI in career mode. The game is great in stat mode but wheeling and dealing has never been easier. If Brad is going to allow it and not fix it then I'm gonna do it and talk about it. This has been a problem with OOTPBB since I can remember starting to play it in 2004.

When a player is offered a high contract by a team the no trade clause should be part of the deal more demanded by the player. Especially against the AI. This would definitely stop me from making silly contracts to get a player I wanted for a few years.

Yeah I know some of you are just gonna say "just don't do it' but I like a game to work like the real thing and it would be so easy to fix this lil problem with a "no trade clause demanded by high paid players with shrinking stats ahead of them". Everyone knows a player after 30 is on the way out at some point and really isn't going to get better over those years.

[frangipard]

Originally Posted by ms2002

Could also try sweetening the deal by including another top player, like the recent Kimbrel / Upton trade to the Padres.

LOL ... Upton is not a top player, and he was the opposite of a sweetener, he was "if you want Kimbrel, you have to take Upton and his awful contract off our hands!"

The equivalent here would be to sweeten his Cano deal by throwing in some prospects.

[dnlwrd]

Originally Posted by ezpkns34

If you don't care about taking advantage of the AI with a bad trade for them that they shouldn't take and you're willing to upload your save game, then I'd find a Cano trade or 2 for you

Nearly any player is tradable in OOTP if you don't care about taking advantage of the AI (even on very hard trade difficulty)

Part of me is really tempted to do it, part of me feels I should ride it out and see what I can do. I appreciate the offer though mate!

[ms2002]

Originally Posted by frangipard

LOL ... Upton is not a top player, and he was the opposite of a sweetener, he was "if you want Kimbrel, you have to take Upton and his awful contract off our hands!"

The equivalent here would be to sweeten his Cano deal by throwing in some prospects.

Right, Kimbrel = the sweetener for taking Upton's awful contract.

[frangipard]

Originally Posted by ms2002

Right, Kimbrel = the sweetener for taking Upton's awful contract.

Oh ... now I follow you!

[GeoWar]

I have a game started playing as Seattle. I reviewed contracts and then traded Cano (which had an effect on fan interest) to Cincy .

Seattle - Cano 2B, Zunino C, Weeks 2B
for
Cincy - Mesoraco C (met a GM goal to improve C) , Phillips 2B, Bruce RF

salaries balanced but down the road I did not have the risk

** Valued Rodriquez more than Cano in keeping

.

[forgivy]

Originally Posted by OzzieFan

This is a problem for EVERY over 32 player it seems. Lots of them have long big contracts. OOTP seems to nerf these players severely. For last three editions... the first thing you have to do when taking over the Cardinals is to offload Wainwright, Holliday, and Molina. If you do not... within 1 - 2 seasons you will have completely useless players.

It's been a pain in my butt for years. I think the game is too hard on older players... I don't see players go from top players (70+) to 20/20 players much in real life... but it happens all the time here.

This is completely not True, Wainwright won a cy young in 2017, and had a 3.29 ERA in 2018. I actually resigned him for 2019 with a team option for 2020.

Molina is just fine until his contract runs out but i did not choose to resign him when i was offered a trade for S. Perez in his contract year.

Holiday was fine for me up until the final year of his contract then he sucked. I basically used him as a bench player. he had about 350 AB.

[dnlwrd]

Originally Posted by GeoWar

I have a game started playing as Seattle. I reviewed contracts and then traded Cano (which had an effect on fan interest) to Cincy .

Seattle - Cano 2B, Zunino C, Weeks 2B
for
Cincy - Mesoraco C (met a GM goal to improve C) , Phillips 2B, Bruce RF

salaries balanced but down the road I did not have the risk

** Valued Rodriquez more than Cano in keeping

.

Zunino is 5 star in my game currently (just moving into Season 4). I did eventually manage to move Cano on to Tampa Bay but I can't remember the details of the trade. I'll have a look after work.

[Rain King]

Part of the problem, I think, with the real roster set and players declining early are that the prospects are a little overcharged. This is something that is really hard to get right and balanced. Often if feels to me when people think there are problems with the game they are actually just the problems of a human created roster set that doesn't have the games more tested and balanced player creation model behind it (as well as an AI that is stuck with weird team configurations that it doesn't like).

This isn't to say that the game creates a perfect world at the start either (the best way to get a good league is still to sim way ahead and let the development engine balance things out).