Rules: Salaries, Free Agency, & Extensions

[Vik]

 

2019 players per position updated for extensions.

[chrisetc21]

Salaries

We operate a hard cap that is the average of the previous year's MLB salaries plus 5%.  A team is not allowed to exceed the cap at any time.  Transactions that put a team over the cap will not be allowed.  The minimum major league salary is $500k. 

The arbitration salary scale is as follows:

Year 1: $500k
Year 2: $550k
Year 3: $600k

Salaries for years 4-6 are determined by the player's actual MLB salary from the previous season.  If they do not have an MLB salary from the previous season, then the minimum salary will be used.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb is the designated site for locating previous season salaries.

Service Time

Players inherit their MLB service time in the league as of the end of the 2010 season. If the player is on a 40-man roster on May 21, 2011, the player will qualify for a full year of service time. In AFB, one day spent on the 40-man roster will give the player a full year of service time; there is no broken time.

Once a player is Outright Released and clears waivers the service time will be reflective of real MLB time not AFB time. 1 full year in the MLB equals 1 year of AFB service time.

Option limits are not included in this league. There is no limit as to how many times a player may be sent down to the minor leagues after being placed on the 40-man roster.

General Free Agency Rules

1) Winning bids must stand for 48 hours to sign player. 
2) Maximum of 6 winnings bids allowed at a time.
3) No editing of bids.   
4) A major league contract automatically trumps a minor league contract regardless of value.
5) No minor leaguer under the age of 23 may be offered a major league contract.


Bidding Guidelines

Majors Minimum salary: $500k
Majors Minimum raise: $500k
Majors Minimum raise over $50m: $2m
Majors Max Contract Years: 5

Minors Minimum Veterans Contract: VC + 500k
Minors Minimum Veterans Raise: $100k
*Any player with six or more years of arbitration*

Minors Minimum Bid: PC + $50k
Minors Minimum Raise: Initial raise DOUBLED. Subsequent raises $50K
Minors Minimum Raise over $5m: $200k


In Minors bidding, PC stands for prospect contract.  It is a guaranteed bonus paid from your current year's salary cap to acquire a player.

Free Agent thread titles should be posted with the player name and position.  Minor league free agent threads should include a link to the player at baseball-reference or milb.com. 

Any player with real life service time may be signed to a minor league contract. 
Free agents signed with
0-3 years of service time will operate on a prospect contract.
3-6 years of service time will be limited to 2 year contract. (If placed on the 40 man roster normal ARB rules will take over.
6+ years of service time will be a 1 year contract.


International Free Agency has a different set of rules that can be found at the link below.
http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=159576.0


Offseason Free Agency Period

We're going to open different positions each week for free agency.  Once the week is up for each position, no opening bids may be placed.  So, for example, on day 7 an opening bid is placed for a position.  Bidding on that player will continue until the player is won however no more opening bids past day 7 of that position.  Once all positions have been opened and closed for their period, all positions will re-open until the free agency period closes for the year on the final day of the World Series. 

There's no strategy in which positions open at what time.  If it is clear there aren't many players being bid on for the current position we reserve the right to open the next week's position early in order to expedite free agency.  We will give the league 24 hours notice if we open a new position ahead of time.

Week 1 - Catchers
Week 2 - 1B & 3B
Week 3 - SS & 2B
Week 4 - Outfield
Week 5 - Starting Pitchers
Week 6 - Relief Pitchers

You can structure your bids however you like but the contract amount per year must be constant.  You cannot offer $20 million in the first season and $3million in the second season or vice versa.  There is no restructuring of deals at this point. 

International free agents under age 23 are NOT eligible for this free agent period.  These international free agents will be part of the international free agency period beginning in July.  While a major league contract automatically trumps a minor league contract regardless of value, no minor leaguer under the age of 23 may be offered a major league contract.

There are no more than 6 winning bids allowed at one time for any one owner regardless of major or minor league bidding.  Anyone who oversteps the maximum bid guideline will receive a warning via private message however if you overstep the guideline a second time you'll be restricted from bidding for 48 hours or until some combination of your six bids being outbid or your six bids having won their players.

Posts in free agency threads should not be edited for any reason.  Posts in free agency threads are binding and considered final.  Make absolutely certain what you are posting is what you've intended to post.  If anyone edits a post in a free agent thread they'll receive a warning via private message however if you edit a post a second time you'll be restricted from bidding on that player for 48 hours.  Thanks.



International Free Agency Rules

Opens: July 5th at Noon CST
Closes: June 18th at Noon CST.

International Free Agents are defined as players under age 23 who have not signed a contract with a major league franchise as of July 1st. 

Funds and signings for 2016 can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R-dbGkjzpx-TXtJKVPqCLfYl3GPtwKjfaH4gTTdueCs/edit#gid=482020751

Each owner may post 1 player every 24 hours.  You can have up to six leading bids at one time including regular free agency.  Once a new player is posted with a bid, the second bid for that player must double the previous bid.  Every subsequent bid must be increased by a minimum $50k.  Any bids of $2m or more must be increased by a minimum $250k.  In addition to the International Signing Funds, each club is allowed to sign 6 players for bonuses of $50k or less that will not count against its pool.

International Free Agency funds are separate from the regular salary cap and will be determined by the previous year’s Regular Season Winning Percentage and Fantasy Points in Reverse Order

A player signing link will need to be included from a reputable website when a bid thread is created.  Only international eligible players signed in the current real life period will be eligible to be signed in our current international free agency period.  Any players signed in prior periods will become regular free agents once that signing period closes.

Trading of International Signing Funds is allowed.

Funds will not roll over; if they aren't used then they are gone. Also, room will have to be made in the minor league system for all players signed.



Contract Extensions

Contract extension offers must be made between the end of the World Series and start of free agent period for current offseason. The official deadline date year to year will be announced and may be extended at the Commissioner’s Office’s discretion.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LBfa-TLX6Ng3f3HEU95Q_DxNOF0CBXt89pdbR0pnqZg/edit#gid=2063262664

Here are the amount of players in each category to find your player's percentile ranking.

2014
C - 106
MI - 192
CI - 192
OF - 253
P- 658

2015
C- 103
MI - 187
CI - 204
OF - 260
P - 675

2016
C- 97
MI - 159
CI - 163
OF - 247
P - 657

2017
C- 101
MI - 167
CI - 167
OF - 249
P - 664

2018
C -
MI -
CI -
OF -
P - 684

2019

C - 115
MI - 201
CI - 224
OF - 281
P - 774


GM's may extend the contracts of players in the final year of team control. Only 3 extensions may be made per off-season. Extensions can be between 1 and 5 years long. The highest percentile rank of the past 2 seasons will be taken in order to accommodate injuries. The value of the contract is determined from the percentile rank (by fantasy points) of the player in their position group. The groups are as follows: OF, CI, MI, C, P. If a player qualifies for more than one position group, the highest salary offer will be used. Only players at the 75th percentile and higher may be extended.

A player's new salary may not be lower than the previous year's. If this is the case, the extension value will move to the previous year’s salary.

To determine the percentile rank, perform the following steps:

1. Determine the total size of the player pool in the position group determined by anyone that has an AB or IP.

2. Find the rank of the player within the group by total fantasy points.

3. Divide the result from Step 2 into Step 1. Multiply the result by 100 then 100 minus the result give you the percentile rank.

4. Repeat Steps 1 - 3 for each qualifying position group and use the highest rank for the past 2 seasons.

5. Find the salary with the same percentile rank as the player's percentile rank as fantasy points. This will be done automatically via a spreadsheet. The salary will be uniform throughout the duration of the contract.


Example

MI - Asdrubal Cabrera ranked 17th out of 174 Middle Infielders in 2012

100 - (17/174*100) = 90.2% rounded gives 90% percentile

Look up his extension value which is $12,100,000 annually for 1 – 5 years