Question about signing draft picks

[pfholden]

Saw some discussion on signing draft picks in OOTP 21 but didn't see these two questions brought up.


1) The bonus demands seem to have changed a good bit. Basically the top 5-7 prospects in my draft want $10+m. I have the #2 pick. Are these guys likely to actually sign for this much? Or after being drafted do they come down to an ask closer to slot? I realize this will depend on their signability, but just looking for, in general, will a guy asking for $15m with normal signability be open to anything outside the $15m ballpark?



2) In past versions, after round 5, all guys who didn't have "impossible" signability signed automatically. I heard that any guys above "normal" (hard, very hard, etc) who has a demand other than "slot" now has to be signed and it comes out of your draft budget. Can anyone who has drafted confirm?

[Shake Appeal]

Yeah, I got badly burned the first year by having a bunch of guys in later rounds who wanted money I didn't have left. It wasn't much, but my budget was blown on the early guys. In my second year, I kept much better track of it.

[LegalEagle80]

I'm not sure about #1. I drafted third in my save and actually avoided the guy with the really high demand specifically because of this. He actually wanted more in his demand than I had in the budget of my entire draft. His sign-ability was "very hard" which usually means he won't budget from his asking price.

I can confirm you have to manually sign later picks, at least if they're at very hard or impossible. They don't sign automatically if their initial demand is significantly over slot value.

[pfholden]

Gotcha, thanks to both of you for the response. In my draft, the top 6 prospects all want $9.5m or more, with two of them asking for $15m.



Kind of a bummer to probably have to go outside the top 6 ranked by my scout with the #2 overall pick.

[LegalEagle80]

I kinda like it -- real teams do this all the time.

Although I'm interested in what actually happened with the AI. For example, as the Marlins I avoided drafting a guy with a $20 million demand and "very hard" signability but somehow a few picks later the Pirates picked him and signed him. They also have a tiny budget, so I'm not sure if the player significantly lowered his demand or what happened.

[pfholden]

Did the Pirates sign him for $20m or did the asking price come down? Should tell you under the player history tab

[LegalEagle80]

Originally Posted by pfholden

Did the Pirates sign him for $20m or did the asking price come down? Should tell you under the player history tab

Oh, nice, I didn't realize the history tab would show me a player's signing bonus, only their draft position. I will have to check when I get home.

[thklein]

Originally Posted by LegalEagle80

I kinda like it -- real teams do this all the time.

Real teams used to do this all the time. The current rules wouldn’t allow it because any over slot money you give one player is money you can’t give other players. The team with the most money to spend in 2019 had just over $16 million for the whole draft. Only 19 teams had more than $10 million for the whole draft. So a player demanding $15 million to sign might as well plan on another year of school, because they aren’t getting drafted. Unless it’s Ken Griffey Jr.

[thesmokeshow]

I’ve noticed if you meet the players demand, he will sign. I never bother offering the silt amount. It almost seems trivial.

Also I’m not sure how ‘signability’ is intended to function. Maybe if the signability is hard or very hard, it just implicates he’ll be demanding more money. But I have not encountered a situation after doing 5-6 drafts that a player refused to sign of you just simply meet their demand.

Please correct me if I’m wrong. Curious if anyone has seen a player refuse a deal after meeting his demand. And if I’m missing something about the slot amount. Because it doesn’t see that it matters really at all.

I don’t have a problem with how it all works. But I guess I would prefer if ‘signability’ added some uncertainly to if the player would sign or refuse to sign at their demand.

[CBeisbol]

I remember a situation with the Dodgers a few years ago, kind of, and a quick search didn't find it, where they drafted a guy and were prepared to pay him over slot, but they lost him when a guy drafted lower didn't sign and they lost the second player's slot money and couldn't sign the first guy either because they didn't have the money in the pool


Or I'm conflating this with something else
Or misremembering completely

[greenOak]

In my experience guys asking for 15M are not going to sign for anything near slot regardless of their signability. If they have hard or extremely hard signability be prepared to have to meet their full demand.

As for #2, I can confirm. If their demand is not slot you have to pay them. Typically somewhere around 200-300K.

[pfholden]

Originally Posted by thklein

Real teams used to do this all the time. The current rules wouldn’t allow it because any over slot money you give one player is money you can’t give other players. The team with the most money to spend in 2019 had just over $16 million for the whole draft. Only 19 teams had more than $10 million for the whole draft. So a player demanding $15 million to sign might as well plan on another year of school, because they aren’t getting drafted. Unless it’s Ken Griffey Jr.

Yup, exactly. With the way the draft works now, these signing bonus demands aren't realistic. Last year in real life, Rutschman signed for $8.1m and that was a new record. Yet, here I am with a guy at $15m, $11m, $10, and like four others over $9m and 6 or so with "impossible" demands. I like the spirit of the changes to the draft in 21, but this particular detail needs tweaking.

[andyhdz]

I thought you could change this in the draft settings? Or is that only for the slot baseline amounts?

[LegalEagle80]

Originally Posted by thklein

Real teams used to do this all the time. The current rules wouldn’t allow it because any over slot money you give one player is money you can’t give other players. The team with the most money to spend in 2019 had just over $16 million for the whole draft. Only 19 teams had more than $10 million for the whole draft. So a player demanding $15 million to sign might as well plan on another year of school, because they aren’t getting drafted. Unless it’s Ken Griffey Jr.

Ah, yes, I glossed over the fact this is relatively new. I do actually like the limitation somewhat -- like the strategy of drafting Player A over Player B because Player A's demand is less, which lets you have room to draft Player C the next round.

But definitely the bonus demands need tweaking in a patch. I didn't even realize Rutschman "only" got $8 million last year. No way should anyone be asking for even $10 million if that's the case.