How much should I pay for Betts?

Jakeydude18 · 05-09-2020, 07:25 AM

In my first season in Colorado, I was able to dump a lot of bad contracts while still being competitive. We didn't get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs until the series of the regular season. We were able to finish 85-77, yet we finished third in the division and 32 games behind division champs LAD. We were only 2 games out of the Wildcard when all said and done.

Since it's the 2020 off-season, I'm looking to acquire Mookie Betts for next year. The reason I ask here is because I have a philosophy that I only buy young, controllable guys. For example, I declined Dan Murphy's option of $12,000,000 and I let go of both Jon Gray and Kyle Freeland due to piss poor performances. Freeland spent majority of the season at AAA and Gray had too many poor performances for the amount of money he was requesting (near the $10,000,000 mark). Some of the pitchers I acquired throughout the 2020 season were Cionel Perez, Alex Reyes, Jose Urquidy, Zach Eflin, and Spencer Howard. I also was able to acquire players that will become major league ready in the next few years

As you can see, I have been able to get a bunch of players for cheap for this team. 27 players are being paid less than $1,000,000. Of those 27, 25 are either pre-arb or arb contracts. Notice how the only big contracts I still have on the team are Arenado and Story. Everyone else I was able to move.

Now, since I never spend money to get big name free agents, I'm worried that I'll overspend by a large margin if I go out to get Betts. I understand that in free agency you're more likely to overspend to get someone but when I saw his demand compared to what he was getting in LAD I started to second guess myself. Betts got paid $27,000,000 in 2020 and now his demand is $48,333,333. I've personally never seen a demand that before in OOTP and I'm using a standard MLB game.

I have $63,423,000 to spend on free agents and I have $81,800,000 to spend on extensions.

How much do you think I'll need to spend to get him? When I go to contract offer for him, he wants $290M/6 years, with an opt-out after year 4. The contract is also back-ended ($42.5, $47.5, $50, $50, $50, $50)

Should I make an initial right off the bat or should I wait a few days to see how high his offer does go? Also, if I do end up signing Betts, how significantly, if at all, will my "Money for Extensions" be affected? I've never really paid too much attention to these as my philosophy when it comes to players never included big money signings so I always came up under budget.

jimmysthebestcop · 05-09-2020, 08:00 AM

I wouldn't sign him. If you can lock him up on a 7 year deal around 25-28 million with double year team option then I would consider it. Just because he is a fan fav or he can become a captain as well. And has good traits. In my universe Dodgers locked him up until 2027 around 28 mill on the average. 1 player like that isn't bad for the Rockies market size and income.

But it all depends on how you like to the play game. I look at GMing more like an NBA GM where I want to accrue assets. That is the most important thing to me. And I want to spend as little money as possible on payroll when starting out a new team. Because the more money I have the more assets I can gain. I shop for those 1 year players then bad teams want to dump to playoff teams. Then I turn around pay their salary for that 1 year and trade them for prospects.

With almost 50 million you are talking about buying 10 one year studs at start of year or over a dozen at the deadline. That could net you 20 minor league assets. Then the next year you have almost 2 dozen assets that you can try turning into a legit prospect who is either ready for the show or 1 year away.

I have the same philosophy was it comes to rule 5 draft. I micromanage my 40 man and usually have 5 spots open. I draft the 5 best guys. Leave them on the team during spring training then look up which star players are out for the year and trade the Rule 5 guys. Those other teams not have 40 man space since they moved their star to the 60 day IL and they either have an opening to start or they need a platoon/bench guy now. Or better a long reliever since their starter is out 15 months. I can usually move several of the Rule 5 guys that way and gain some assets. The rest I just cut and let go back to their original team. I don't even think it costs you money since it's a spring training move. So its a no brainer for me.

Now the last thing is very very exploited and I don't do it once I discovered it. But you can offer the International Amateur Free Agent the max 5 million USD on day 1. He will auto sign the very next day with your team 100% of the time. Then you can immediately promote him and trade him for a huge prospect. At the very best those int amat guys are 16 and are 5 to 8 years away from the show. If your extremely lucky 3 to 4 years. But you can trade for a huge prospect that is show ready now or at the start of the next season. Again this is very exploited but if you want you can do it.

I almost never see the need to sign a big time free agent and keep them on my team 7 years. Again if you can get a super star for 5 years, 2 team options and 25/28 million average a year then at least it becomes a tough decision.

CBL-Commish · 05-09-2020, 08:48 AM

Never sign a player to a contract like that. Unless maybe he a home-grown guy and you can get him at a discount, or you just desperately want your own Cal or Al Kaline.

You'd be far better off as an organization signing shorter/smaller contracts and investing in development, infrastructure, and amateur signings.

PepeSylvia · 05-09-2020, 09:03 AM

The absolute most I would personally pay for Betts would be around 28 a year for probably 6 or 7 years max. If you can get him at around 28 a year with his desired opt out after 4 that's not bad, you're getting his probably best remaining years that way. I dont think he ever signs for his starting asking price.

In my current sim, he signed for 7/221. FWIW he was not worth that deal, his highest WAR was 5.5 in the first year and then ranged from 1.1-4.6.

Ive never personally entered the Betts sweepstakes in any save.

pgjocki · 05-09-2020, 11:52 AM

Here's a starting point:

Year 1 - $28
Year 2 - $29
Year 3 - $30
Year 4 - $31 (opt out)
Year 5 - $30
Year 6 - $29
Year 7 - $28.5

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Jakeydude18 · 05-09-2020, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

I wouldn't sign him. If you can lock him up on a 7 year deal around 25-28 million with double year team option then I would consider it. Just because he is a fan fav or he can become a captain as well. And has good traits. In my universe Dodgers locked him up until 2027 around 28 mill on the average. 1 player like that isn't bad for the Rockies market size and income.

But it all depends on how you like to the play game. I look at GMing more like an NBA GM where I want to accrue assets. That is the most important thing to me. And I want to spend as little money as possible on payroll when starting out a new team. Because the more money I have the more assets I can gain. I shop for those 1 year players then bad teams want to dump to playoff teams. Then I turn around pay their salary for that 1 year and trade them for prospects.

With almost 50 million you are talking about buying 10 one year studs at start of year or over a dozen at the deadline. That could net you 20 minor league assets. Then the next year you have almost 2 dozen assets that you can try turning into a legit prospect who is either ready for the show or 1 year away.

I have the same philosophy was it comes to rule 5 draft. I micromanage my 40 man and usually have 5 spots open. I draft the 5 best guys. Leave them on the team during spring training then look up which star players are out for the year and trade the Rule 5 guys. Those other teams not have 40 man space since they moved their star to the 60 day IL and they either have an opening to start or they need a platoon/bench guy now. Or better a long reliever since their starter is out 15 months. I can usually move several of the Rule 5 guys that way and gain some assets. The rest I just cut and let go back to their original team. I don't even think it costs you money since it's a spring training move. So its a no brainer for me.

Now the last thing is very very exploited and I don't do it once I discovered it. But you can offer the International Amateur Free Agent the max 5 million USD on day 1. He will auto sign the very next day with your team 100% of the time. Then you can immediately promote him and trade him for a huge prospect. At the very best those int amat guys are 16 and are 5 to 8 years away from the show. If your extremely lucky 3 to 4 years. But you can trade for a huge prospect that is show ready now or at the start of the next season. Again this is very exploited but if you want you can do it.

I almost never see the need to sign a big time free agent and keep them on my team 7 years. Again if you can get a super star for 5 years, 2 team options and 25/28 million average a year then at least it becomes a tough decision.

I like to do the double team option and team options in my contracts as is. I normally like to play the game using smaller and shorter contracts but I have the money to get him so I'm seriously considering getting him. There aren't any other worthwhile free agents besides than Betts. Ken GIles, Trevor Bauer, Kirby Yates, DJ LeMahieu (I'm set at 2B, plus Dan Murphy only wants half of what DJ wants), and JD Martinez but he's much older than Mookie.

I do utilize the Rule 5 draft when I'm in a total rebuild with no money whatsoever. So if I never got rid of the bad contracts the Rockies had I definitely would have been using the Rule 5 draft.

I also did know about the IFA day 1 bid for a few years. I basically only get one IFA a year because I want to ensure I get the best player imo.

Jakeydude18 · 05-09-2020, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

Never sign a player to a contract like that. Unless maybe he a home-grown guy and you can get him at a discount, or you just desperately want your own Cal or Al Kaline.

You'd be far better off as an organization signing shorter/smaller contracts and investing in development, infrastructure, and amateur signings.

Yes I agree with you that from an organizational point of view I'd be better off. I have 27 contracts on the books that are under $1,000,000 and of those, 25 players are either pre-arb or arb eligible. The only big contracts I have on the team are Arenado's and Story's. I do plan on continuing to increase development (currently at $15,000,000 but will increase right before preseason starts)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PepeSylvia

The absolute most I would personally pay for Betts would be around 28 a year for probably 6 or 7 years max. If you can get him at around 28 a year with his desired opt out after 4 that's not bad, you're getting his probably best remaining years that way. I dont think he ever signs for his starting asking price.

In my current sim, he signed for 7/221. FWIW he was not worth that deal, his highest WAR was 5.5 in the first year and then ranged from 1.1-4.6.

Ive never personally entered the Betts sweepstakes in any save.

Yea I've personally never signed someone for more than $30M for as long as I can remember, and I've been playing since OOTP16. Do you think I should start off with a $28M deal and see where he goes from there? Also, playing at Coors do you think he'll have better stats because of the Coors effect? I would personally hope that he takes his opt out because I'm not a big fan of paying guys in their mid-30s.

Fronzizzle · 05-09-2020, 05:22 PM

In any version of OOTP, anytime I've spent too much - for too many years - on players, I've regretted it. As others have said, sometimes I'll sign my own players to 4-5 year extensions if I can get them cheap enough; if not, I'll let them leave and get the comp pick or I'll deal them for a prospect.

Absent of that, I usually spend my money on cheaper/shorter contracts, and often you can find studs for trade for almost nothing by teams that want to dump their salary.

fuzzy_patters · 05-10-2020, 02:14 PM

Do what I did. I signed him to a crazily front-loaded contract where he made $22 mil the first year, 35 the second, and 45 for the next 8. He got an opt out after 6. I was expecting to win that year. It didn’t happen, so I shopped him around at the All Star break. The Twins offered me Jose Berrios. So I ended up getting half a year of Mookie at a discount and then an ace pitcher with a better contract. It’s a win win.

05-09-2020, 07:25 AM	#1
Jakeydude18 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Apr 2016 Posts: 99	How much should I pay for Betts? In my first season in Colorado, I was able to dump a lot of bad contracts while still being competitive. We didn't get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs until the series of the regular season. We were able to finish 85-77, yet we finished third in the division and 32 games behind division champs LAD. We were only 2 games out of the Wildcard when all said and done. Since it's the 2020 off-season, I'm looking to acquire Mookie Betts for next year. The reason I ask here is because I have a philosophy that I only buy young, controllable guys. For example, I declined Dan Murphy's option of $12,000,000 and I let go of both Jon Gray and Kyle Freeland due to piss poor performances. Freeland spent majority of the season at AAA and Gray had too many poor performances for the amount of money he was requesting (near the $10,000,000 mark). Some of the pitchers I acquired throughout the 2020 season were Cionel Perez, Alex Reyes, Jose Urquidy, Zach Eflin, and Spencer Howard. I also was able to acquire players that will become major league ready in the next few years As you can see, I have been able to get a bunch of players for cheap for this team. 27 players are being paid less than $1,000,000. Of those 27, 25 are either pre-arb or arb contracts. Notice how the only big contracts I still have on the team are Arenado and Story. Everyone else I was able to move. Now, since I never spend money to get big name free agents, I'm worried that I'll overspend by a large margin if I go out to get Betts. I understand that in free agency you're more likely to overspend to get someone but when I saw his demand compared to what he was getting in LAD I started to second guess myself. Betts got paid $27,000,000 in 2020 and now his demand is $48,333,333. I've personally never seen a demand that before in OOTP and I'm using a standard MLB game. I have $63,423,000 to spend on free agents and I have $81,800,000 to spend on extensions. How much do you think I'll need to spend to get him? When I go to contract offer for him, he wants $290M/6 years, with an opt-out after year 4. The contract is also back-ended ($42.5, $47.5, $50, $50, $50, $50) Should I make an initial right off the bat or should I wait a few days to see how high his offer does go? Also, if I do end up signing Betts, how significantly, if at all, will my "Money for Extensions" be affected? I've never really paid too much attention to these as my philosophy when it comes to players never included big money signings so I always came up under budget. Attached Images

05-09-2020, 08:48 AM	#3
CBL-Commish All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Maryland Posts: 1,999	Never sign a player to a contract like that. Unless maybe he a home-grown guy and you can get him at a discount, or you just desperately want your own Cal or Al Kaline. You'd be far better off as an organization signing shorter/smaller contracts and investing in development, infrastructure, and amateur signings. __________________ For the best in O's news: Orioles' Hangout.com

05-09-2020, 11:52 AM	#5
pgjocki All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Maryland - just outside DC Posts: 1,590	Here's a starting point: Year 1 - $28 Year 2 - $29 Year 3 - $30 Year 4 - $31 (opt out) Year 5 - $30 Year 6 - $29 Year 7 - $28.5 Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk __________________ - - - World Series championships: 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006, 2011

05-09-2020, 08:00 AM	#2
jimmysthebestcop Banned Join Date: Jun 2018 Posts: 1,727 Infractions: 0/2 (5)	I wouldn't sign him. If you can lock him up on a 7 year deal around 25-28 million with double year team option then I would consider it. Just because he is a fan fav or he can become a captain as well. And has good traits. In my universe Dodgers locked him up until 2027 around 28 mill on the average. 1 player like that isn't bad for the Rockies market size and income. But it all depends on how you like to the play game. I look at GMing more like an NBA GM where I want to accrue assets. That is the most important thing to me. And I want to spend as little money as possible on payroll when starting out a new team. Because the more money I have the more assets I can gain. I shop for those 1 year players then bad teams want to dump to playoff teams. Then I turn around pay their salary for that 1 year and trade them for prospects. With almost 50 million you are talking about buying 10 one year studs at start of year or over a dozen at the deadline. That could net you 20 minor league assets. Then the next year you have almost 2 dozen assets that you can try turning into a legit prospect who is either ready for the show or 1 year away. I have the same philosophy was it comes to rule 5 draft. I micromanage my 40 man and usually have 5 spots open. I draft the 5 best guys. Leave them on the team during spring training then look up which star players are out for the year and trade the Rule 5 guys. Those other teams not have 40 man space since they moved their star to the 60 day IL and they either have an opening to start or they need a platoon/bench guy now. Or better a long reliever since their starter is out 15 months. I can usually move several of the Rule 5 guys that way and gain some assets. The rest I just cut and let go back to their original team. I don't even think it costs you money since it's a spring training move. So its a no brainer for me. Now the last thing is very very exploited and I don't do it once I discovered it. But you can offer the International Amateur Free Agent the max 5 million USD on day 1. He will auto sign the very next day with your team 100% of the time. Then you can immediately promote him and trade him for a huge prospect. At the very best those int amat guys are 16 and are 5 to 8 years away from the show. If your extremely lucky 3 to 4 years. But you can trade for a huge prospect that is show ready now or at the start of the next season. Again this is very exploited but if you want you can do it. I almost never see the need to sign a big time free agent and keep them on my team 7 years. Again if you can get a super star for 5 years, 2 team options and 25/28 million average a year then at least it becomes a tough decision.

05-09-2020, 09:03 AM	#4
PepeSylvia Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2019 Posts: 56	The absolute most I would personally pay for Betts would be around 28 a year for probably 6 or 7 years max. If you can get him at around 28 a year with his desired opt out after 4 that's not bad, you're getting his probably best remaining years that way. I dont think he ever signs for his starting asking price. In my current sim, he signed for 7/221. FWIW he was not worth that deal, his highest WAR was 5.5 in the first year and then ranged from 1.1-4.6. Ive never personally entered the Betts sweepstakes in any save.

05-09-2020, 05:22 PM	#8
Fronzizzle Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 177	In any version of OOTP, anytime I've spent too much - for too many years - on players, I've regretted it. As others have said, sometimes I'll sign my own players to 4-5 year extensions if I can get them cheap enough; if not, I'll let them leave and get the comp pick or I'll deal them for a prospect. Absent of that, I usually spend my money on cheaper/shorter contracts, and often you can find studs for trade for almost nothing by teams that want to dump their salary.

05-10-2020, 02:14 PM	#9
fuzzy_patters All Star Starter Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 1,806	Do what I did. I signed him to a crazily front-loaded contract where he made $22 mil the first year, 35 the second, and 45 for the next 8. He got an opt out after 6. I was expecting to win that year. It didn’t happen, so I shopped him around at the All Star break. The Twins offered me Jose Berrios. So I ended up getting half a year of Mookie at a discount and then an ace pitcher with a better contract. It’s a win win.