How to handle Offseason?

[JO122194]

What's up guys, I am approaching the end of my first season in my Mets franchise and am looking forward to the off-season coming up. The only time I ever finished a full year was back in MLB 09 and remembered the off-season was a bit confusing so I made a second save to see what to expect this year. Lone behold, I was little lost. I have a few questions just to ask.

After I resigned all my top guys, it came down to me having an available budget of ~19.5M and a pending budget of still ~4.8M left on guys. By my math that means I could still spend ~14.7M on free agents but every offer I gave, (even those of 950k/1yr) I received a message saying I do not have the funds so the offer has been pulled. This lead to me losing out on guys and getting a worse team.

Also, how do you guys maintain getting a full AAA & AA team. I chose not to resign the 50ovr D & C's but that lead to me just getting a short roster, do you HAVE to resign all the minor league guys every year regardless if you know they will never be of any use?

I know for the rule 5 draft, you have to keep that player in the Major's the full year but is there any other stipulations? (loss of draft picks etc)

Thanks guys, I was just a bit overwhelmed in that practice go and need some expert advice!

Just to note also, I don't know if it's like this for every team but the Mutts only have 1 person under contract through next year in their entire system which is making it difficult

[BOOSTED_ST3]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

Great thread, I actually have the same issue. Any help would be appreciated here as well.

[Jr.]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

The game makes sure that you have enough money to maintain a 40 man roster. The way to open up your budget is to add scrubs to your 40 man roster until it's full. That will allow the full amount of your budget to be available for free agents. Once you have signed who you want, remove the scrubs from your 40 man roster so you can add your new signings.

As for your full minors, you will have to have some D POT players in order to fill it out.

No other stipulations for the Rule 5 draft.

[jfinger2013]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

Yea u gotta sign some D potential guys and just make prospect trades to improve your guys and organizational depth

[RogueHominid]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

With regard to the minor league roster, here's how I think about it.

Most of that roster is never going to see The Show. You only need to stock the top 1/3 or so with talent that is borderline viable at the MLB level.

I typically try to make sure my top 2 pitchers in AAA could spot start in case of an injury (I like to have them be 25 or older and 67-74 OVR). I try to make sure I have 3-4 relievers who can fill in for a week or two here or there. After that, you probably want a handful of real prospects in AA or at the back end of your AAA rotation. If you carry 20 SP and 20 RP, that means that of the 40, you should plan on carrying 7-8 SP who can play and 8-10 RP who can play. The rest can be lower rated, with several being organizational filler.

With position players, I try to have:

2 legit MLB C, 1-2 specs, then filler.
1 MLB 1B, 1 spec, and filler
4 MLB/High-AAA MIF, 2 specs, and filler
5 MLB OF, 3 specs, and filler

Doing it like this is pragmatic in that you will almost certainly not get down past that top layer of borderline MLB talent in your farm system for any extended period of time, especially with the way injuries work in The Show. It also allows you to avoid wasting the money it costs to have a full AAA rotation of ready-to-play MLB SP or of having tons of position players in AA and AAA making 500K or more.

Then if you draft well, you can gradually add more specs and less pure crap guys for the right price.

[aldon_47]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

I posted my question in the actual guide to offseason thread but I thought I would post it here in the PS4 forums as well since its more active (and Im on PS4).

Twins franchise, had a rough year so only about 22 mil available budget. I went through and signed all the minor league guys and also making sure the 40 man roster was full, not touching anyone that is arbitration eligible or contract renewable which put me at something like 20mil available now. I went to sign Ian Kennedy for one year, mostly just to see if I had things right, wants 6mil/year. I sim a day and it says the contract has been withdrawn. Is it being withdrawn because behind the scenes the game is factoring in all the money on my contract renewable and arbitration players?

Something else I noted was in the trade screen, on the bottom is said I have 10 mil in available budget. My first thought is maybe thats where the "real" budget number is but even so, that should still give me the 6 mil to sign Kennedy for one year at 6 mil/year.

[RogueHominid]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

I posted my question in the actual guide to offseason thread but I thought I would post it here in the PS4 forums as well since its more active (and Im on PS4).

Twins franchise, had a rough year so only about 22 mil available budget. I went through and signed all the minor league guys and also making sure the 40 man roster was full, not touching anyone that is arbitration eligible or contract renewable which put me at something like 20mil available now. I went to sign Ian Kennedy for one year, mostly just to see if I had things right, wants 6mil/year. I sim a day and it says the contract has been withdrawn. Is it being withdrawn because behind the scenes the game is factoring in all the money on my contract renewable and arbitration players?

Something else I noted was in the trade screen, on the bottom is said I have 10 mil in available budget. My first thought is maybe thats where the "real" budget number is but even so, that should still give me the 6 mil to sign Kennedy for one year at 6 mil/year.

The short answer is that yes, the game requires you to have enough money to meet the demands of arbitration-eligible players and keep your 40-man full.

Before I spend on FA, I make sure I enter offers for 37 of my 40, and I enter offers for all the MILB players I want to keep, and I enter a very low offer for contract renewable players that I know they won't accept, but that gives me money on the table that will be close to their actual renewal cost.

For arbitration-eligible players, I tender whatever I want to pay them so they don't sit without an offer on the table. I think if they don't have an offer, the CPU calculates whatever they would ask for in arbitration against your cap. With an offer on the table, even if it's less than what the player wants, I think the CPU counts whatever you put on the table against your cap.

Doing it this way has given me the greatest ability to know exactly how much I can spend on free agents.

I really hope they make the financials easier to manage in future years. It's easily my least favorite aspect of franchise mode.

[aldon_47]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

Ok thank you very much for the info, helps clear a few things up. I went through and checked out current salaries for the arbitration players and it is a pretty good chunk of change and thats probably whats handcuffing me. Ill have to keep playing around with it a bit.

I know I cant go after the big name players, wasnt even planning on it, just gets kinda frustrating not being able to sign a low level guy because theres things going on under the hood (and from what Ive seen in my search, Im not the only one haha!).

[RogueHominid]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

Ok thank you very much for the info, helps clear a few things up. I went through and checked out current salaries for the arbitration players and it is a pretty good chunk of change and thats probably whats handcuffing me. Ill have to keep playing around with it a bit.

I know I cant go after the big name players, wasnt even planning on it, just gets kinda frustrating not being able to sign a low level guy because theres things going on under the hood (and from what Ive seen in my search, Im not the only one haha!).

Yeah, arbitration-eligible guys will kill you.

One strategy is to offer them an impossibly low salary even if you have no intention of making them a serious offer or giving them arbitration. Doing so allows you to control the amount that the CPU charges you for having them on your cap until the deadline for making arbitration offers. Otherwise, those players can hijack your finances and prevent you from pursuing their replacements or other guys you really want.

[aldon_47]

Re: How to handle Offseason?

Yeah, arbitration-eligible guys will kill you.

One strategy is to offer them an impossibly low salary even if you have no intention of making them a serious offer or giving them arbitration. Doing so allows you to control the amount that the CPU charges you for having them on your cap until the deadline for making arbitration offers. Otherwise, those players can hijack your finances and prevent you from pursuing their replacements or other guys you really want.

Ok that is also very good to know! Thank you, certainly do appreciate it! I typically look forward to offseason management in my games but this one has been more a headache than anything. And even though Ive been playing The Show for years, this is the first time Ive actually simmed a lot of games to have multiple years in a franchise so still feeling things out a bit.