Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

[Super_Saxy]

I've searched a ton, and cannot find any conclusive answers. I found a few threads with similar issues, but those suggestions didn't work at all...anyway...

I'm in my first off season with the Phillies, using OSFM version 1 rosters, but cannot afford a single free agent. I continually get the "Phillies can no longer afford the contract of XXX, so it was withdrawn". I'm at a loss here. I've tried offering contracts to all my renewable players, but still no luck. I also tried waiting until those players accept contracts, but by that time, all top free agents are gone.

Any ideas here?

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[forme95]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

I've searched a ton, and cannot find any conclusive answers. I found a few threads with similar issues, but those suggestions didn't work at all...anyway...

I'm in my first off season with the Phillies, using OSFM version 1 rosters, but cannot afford a single free agent. I continually get the "Phillies can no longer afford the contract of XXX, so it was withdrawn". I'm at a loss here. I've tried offering contracts to all my renewable players, but still no luck. I also tried waiting until those players accept contracts, but by that time, all top free agents are gone.

Any ideas here?

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How many guys do you have on your 40 man at that moment? How many big contracts and big names have you tried signing?

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[MvPeterson2828]

Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

I just finished my first offseason in my Seattle Mariners rebuild franchise. I had a 3.95 mill cash flow which if you times by 26. ( Roughly how many weeks are in the season) 102,700,000 was my budget. I was nervous about if I’ll run into the issue you are talking about and I didn’t. What I did, was do exclusive FA, tenders, Arbitration, staff, etc, all of it. After that, you’ll see your cash flow should have changed ( maybe not) and have pending offers in the millions. Subtract that pending off amount from your original budget and you’ll see the remainder of space you have in your budget. For me I was around 87,832,000 mill left. I was able to sign Brian Dozier and few other guys with ease and not running into cap issues, Or the whole can’t afford guys crap. I don’t know if this will help you, but this is what I did to help me about since the budget isn’t that user friendly. For me it worked well.


Also, make sure your 40 man roster is full as it possibly can make it. I had a full 40 man roster before I did anything in FA. Read in a thread it helps. Not sure why.

Also my budget room was so high to due to me blowing up my roster, dumping the aging guys and restarting. I have yet to try this with a lower budget team like the marlins. I do plan on it. But just with what I did with the Mariners, I didn’t run into any issues as I thought I would have.


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[Super_Saxy]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

How many guys do you have on your 40 man at that moment? How many big contracts and big names have you tried signing?

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I've tried it multiple ways from a save I have after I was eliminated from the playoffs. First time, I had only 25 on my 40 man. But then tried it again with around 32, then again with a full 40. No luck. I've tried it just offering Bryce Harper a contract, I've tried offering Bryce and Manny Machado a contract. Nothing.

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[Super_Saxy]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

Well, I figured it out...sort of...

I had to trade Carlos Santana, and a few other 2-5 million per year players. I'm guessing the problem was that the Phillies only have 7 players under contract after the 2018 season.

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[F5_Miabi]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

It’s alright. I had just won the Series with the Dodgers and couldn’t afford anyone in the offseason. It was mind blowing.

[coach422001]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

Well, I figured it out...sort of...

I had to trade Carlos Santana, and a few other 2-5 million per year players. I'm guessing the problem was that the Phillies only have 7 players under contract after the 2018 season.

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the game has been historically unclear as to specifics that trigger that kind of message when trying to sign a free agent. As far as I figure, somewhere in the system it is figuring out how much money you'd have remaining against the budget and all of the currently unsigned player slots you still have available. Often when I get up to 36-37 players assigned to my 40-man, and start filling out the minor league rosters so that slots and dollar amounts are accounted for, I usually can overcome this as long as my big FA signing isn't taking my budget 'too low' (not sure what the threshold is though). For example, I couldn't get McCutcheon onto the Giants last year even with a near full 40 man and 75 players signed in the system. The signing would have taken the team to less than 100K /week if I recall correctly. But I don't know if that is a threshold or not. I think (I may be mistaken) in the off-season these are also estimated weekly cashflows, so again the game may have a buffer calculated in so the team doesn't start off too deep in the red either from payroll itself or payroll and a bad start.

[mlblover15]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

not to be a D*** but this is what the stubs are there for... just from cashing in every card, the piece of equipping, bobblehead etc. i have over $400M in my bank. i will have no problems signing any players of my choosing

[Smada14]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

I haven’t read too far but I realized an easy way to sign highly rated free agents for very cheap. At the end of free agency, about a week or 2 before Spring Training begins, there will undoubtedly be at least 3 or 4 90+ rated free agents left. As long as you are still in the off-season, in the last month of the offseason (February), you can offer a VERY small contract to any free agent remaining and they will almost always accept. Of course, the interest level will be low but after about 3 days, they accept your offer. But it HAS to be BEFORE Spring Training. Once the season begins, their asking price goes back up and they won’t sign for anything less.

[coach422001]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

I haven’t read too far but I realized an easy way to sign highly rated free agents for very cheap. At the end of free agency, about a week or 2 before Spring Training begins, there will undoubtedly be at least 3 or 4 90+ rated free agents left. As long as you are still in the off-season, in the last month of the offseason (February), you can offer a VERY small contract to any free agent remaining and they will almost always accept. Of course, the interest level will be low but after about 3 days, they accept your offer. But it HAS to be BEFORE Spring Training. Once the season begins, their asking price goes back up and they won’t sign for anything less.

Yeah I've been doing this the last few years for guys who's skills have waned but want veteran salaries that are unrealistic for what they would contribute, and to round out rosters with veterans. This allows us to make those big contract acquisitions but then not get stuck with a remaining roster full of 50K/year, 36 ovr players.

[zippy2212]

Re: Can't Afford Any Free Agents?

Not sure if this is still the case but in years past the game calculated the asking price for all arbitration eligible players on a team. Behind the scenes they put a hold on this money just in case. Typically once they start signing you could sign higher valued free agents.

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