Operation Sports Forums - Guide to a successful offseason...

With MLB The Show's latest edition offering a revamped franchise mode, the offseason, as we knew it, has changed in a lot of ways. I'm enjoying these changes because like many, I was growing tired of the same 'ol franchise mode. It seems though that many people are having problems with their offseasons, especially with the new and improved budget system. From my experiences through the first 4 offseasons with the league's newest American League team, the Houston Astros, I've come up with a sort of walk through to help guide those in need of help through an offseason. This may be especially helpful to those embarking on a franchise with a smaller market team.

1. Fill your coaching staff. Offers to your coaching staff go toward your budget as well, so get that done as soon as possible so you know what your remaining budget actually is. Since you're not scouting until the start of the season, hire the 4 cheapest scouts instead of who you had scouting before. This can get you up to 6 million additional dollars towards your budget and when you're done molding your team in the offseason, you can hire the scouts back that you prevously had no matter how much money you have left in your budget.

2. Make sure you have at least 35 players on your 40 man roster, however, I found that the more players I had on my 40 man roster, the more money I was actually able to spend towards qualified and unrestricted free agents. For example, in my 3rd offseason I had a lot of budget room but couldn't seem to offer a contract to a free agent over 3 million dollars. I started playing around and found that the more players I had on my 40 man roster, the more money I was able to offer. At the time I had 38 players on my 40 man, so I upped it to 39 and I was able to offer another million bucks in the deal. When I upped it to 40, I was able to offer 2 more million dollars. I was also able to offer the identicle dollar values to more than one free agent, however, when one of the free agents accepted the offer, the offers of the same value I had out were immediately pulled, even though I had more than enough budget room for all of the offers I had out. You usually don't want to go into free agency with a full 40 man already because if you end up signing major league free agents then you'll have to pass players through waivers to remove them from the 40 man, risking losing them altogether. So I offered Wilton Lopez (4 million over 2 years) and Dan Uggla (one year, 2.1 million). I was over my offer limit by one million dollars but when Wilton Lopez signed, it gave me 39 players on my 40 man and another million dollars to spend, allowing Dan Uggla to accept his one year 2.1 million dollar offer, which he eventually did. So keep a high number on your 40 man, but allow room for free agents that you wish to sign. If you want to maximize your dollars, keep a couple guys extra on your 40 man that you may have alternatively released. Sign the free agents then release those guys you kept just for that purpose. The trick is to find the dollar value that you're allowed to offer, then work it like I did until you can spend the money you're allowed to on all of the things you target.

3. Offer contracts to all of the minor league free agents in your organization that you actually want to keep for next season. You can usually low ball these guys and they will eventually take the offer. If they are no longer interested in your offer, re-offer the contract with at least 20 thousand more dollars tacked on. Since AI calculates budget room for projected roster spots, you're better off getting these guys inked so their actual contract value is reflected in your remaining budget and not the league's predetermined minimum salary.

4. Hold off on offering contracts to players in your organization that are up for renewal for now. These players usually cost more than your other minor leaguers that aren't on your 40 man roster and you need to keep your pending offers number low so you can sign qualified and unrestriced free agents. Before their arbitration rights are given to them, which is after 3 years of major league service time, these players will pretty much accept anything you offer them for as long as they don't have arbitration rights. If a player already has 2 years of service time, he probably won't accept a 2 year offer at a very low rate. Depending on what kind of player you're negotiating with, if these player's ratings are still not at their projected rating but they will be stars in the majors, try offering them contracts with terms covering their 6 years of service time before free agency eligibility. If you don't allow yourself to have this chance then they will eventually have arbitration rights and you will be forced to pay them something you may not be able to afford. Players eligible for arbitration are a bit more tricky. Before my 6th offseason with the Astros, I was under the impression that unless you had actually offered arbitration to the players eligible, it wasn't counted towards your pending offers just yet. Boy, was I wrong. I had all my minor leaguers signed, 39 million dollars in available budget and only 3 players with renewable contracts un-signed. I also had 3 star players eligible for arbitration asking for a combined 40 million dollars in arbitration. I wasn't able to sign any free agents even with a full 40 man roster and this was even before I offered them arbitration. I knew I was going to have to make some tough decisions and by playing around I realized I had to trade 2 out of the 3 players, while still getting something back of value, just to be able to sign the other player eligible for arbitration and qualified/unrestricted free agents. That wasn't part of my plan going into next season but it worked out and I was able to fill my roster out. So remember, players that are eligible for arbitration are already calculated into your projected budget with what THEY'RE asking for in arbitration, no matter if you've offered it to them or not. It would be nice if we were shown somewhere what the AI is calculating for projected salaries, but we aren't so you have to play around like I did to have an idea of what this information is. Obviously the more players you have in your organization, not necessarily signed, but binded to your organization, the more money you can spend from your remaining budget on qualified and unrestricted free agents.

5. If you have any qualified or unrestricted free agents that can leave for free agency, and you want to keep them, I suggest offering them contracts before free agency opens up as well. These free agents tend to take lower offers to stay with the team and obviously count towards your 40 man roster, enabling you to spend more money on free agents. Be smart though and keep your budget in mind. If you don't necessarily need the player and he costs a lot, let him go. Spend your money on your needs.

6. Simulate until the free agency period opens (5 days).

7. Fill your roster needs through free agency. If contract offers are being pulled, play around with your 40 man roster count. Remember, the more players on your 40 man, the more money you can spend on free agents. You'll easily be able to sign the minor leaguers but like I wrote earlier, The AI calculates projected salaries so signing the million dollar plus contracts will be harder. The more players counted towards your organization's 90 man max, the less projected salaries will be calculated towards your budget. Depending on how much money you have, try signing some of the bigger name free agents that you want/need to fill out your major league roster. The trick is to find that actual dollar value you can use in a contract offer. To find this target one of the better free agents. Offer them a contract for one year at what they want. simulate a day. If the offer is pulled, re-offer the contract with a million dollars less. If that offer is pulled, re-offer with another million dollars less and continue this process until you find the actual dollar value. If the contract isn't pulled after an initial offer, you can obviously offer more money. But like I stated before, that is the total so if you need more than one free agent, spread the money around acurately and remember, you'll have more money to offer after if a free agent you signed is added to the 40 man roster. It also seems that after the last day to offer players in your organization contracts has passed and all of the players you wish to keep are offered contracts, you can spend your remaining budget freely, although the remaining free agents available aren't as good if you choose to wait that long, so I don't see this as a viable option. Thus the reason for me playing around to find solutions and ultimately writing this thread.

8. After you fill your organizational needs through free agency and you are no longer looking to sign free agents, offer contracts to those in your organization that are up for renewal. You can actually go over your budget now, but you can no longer sign qualified and unrestricted free agents until they are signed and you still have budget room of course. That's why it's important to target the qualified and unrestricted free agents first.

9. Simulate to the day you have to set your 40 man roster. Make the adjustments so that you don't lose prospects that are available to be picked in the rule 5 draft. (usually A prospects of course and high B prospects that have been in a MLB organization for at least 4 years). I usually take care of this before free agency opens up so I know how many more players I can add to my 40 man roster and to maximize the amount of money I can offer free agents.

10. By this time I usually have taken care of my free agent signings and then offered contracts to the players in my organization that are eligible for arbitration and renewal. I'm pretty well done except for possible trades. I usually don't attempt to make trades until the 1st of February because most teams have finally taken care of their contracts, making it much easier to swing a deal for players you want.

When I first attempted to sign free agents in the offseason and wasn't able to, I thought the game had a bug. I looked for the answers on this forum but only found similar questions by other puzzled franchisers. I set out to find the answers myself and I hope this helps anyone with the same predicament I had. I suggest those that are waiting for the OSFM rosters to be available before they start a franchise to keep this thread in their back pocket, unless they figure it out themselves.

Going off topic a little, I'd like to close by adding a few things. Although signing free agents and budget movement has become harder, scouting and drafting has become much easier. There are a ton of A level prospects I discovered and fully scouted myself, on top of the blue chippers they give you. On top of that, rival organizations seem to be very bad at either finding and/or scouting these prospects or drafting them. They can't even seem to pick the blue chippers at the right time. After my first 3 drafts I had a ridiculous amount of A level prospects. So for my 4th draft I took a different approach. I hired scouts that are very good in the discovery aspect over anything else, set scouting to auto and let them do the work themselves for 2 months. They didn't scout a single player fully, leaving the accuracy at about half way or less. Making the draft a harder process. I still ended up with 4 A level prospects, who were blue chippers I didn't even need to scout, because the other 29 organizations don't draft well. The other 3 picks I chose were pure guesses, which ended up being a B, C, and D level. I like this approach better because I don't like easy and I want the draft process to be more of a **** shoot. Select some prospects that end up being major league talent and select some that are career minor leaguers. More of a real feel if you will. As far as signing A level prospects to ridiculous 10 year terms of 40k per year, I don't go for that. I choose a realistic approach to playing the game and go about managing a franchise in that manner as well.