Quote:
Originally Posted by drhay53
Just a note, but a lot of players will not negotiate longer-term contracts prior to hitting free agency at 6 years of MLB service time. Even a single extra year, they'll just shut you down.
Basically, you get the occasional guy who wants to sign a 6 year deal at 4-5 years of service time, but just about everyone else will shut down extra years immediately, with no room to negotiate. I usually don't push into offering big money though, so perhaps there are dollar amounts where you can start to convince people to add years while they're still under team control. But in my experience, pretty similar to recent MLB history, players are going to hold out for free agency rather than taking a long-term deal with the club that has them under control.
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There are... you just need to learn how to negotiate the right amount.
For instance, take Ozzie Albies below. Using the Team Salary page as a guide, his Arbitration estimates were as follows:
2020: $555,000
2021: $3,800,000
2022: $5,800,000
2023: $7,900,000
When I tried to offer him an extension after the 2019 season, he only wanted to negotiate a one year deal. But I wanted to lock him up long term, so I offered him an 8 year deal:
2020: $1,500,000
2021: $4,500,000
2022: $7,500,000
2023: $9,000,000
2024: $12,000,000
2025: $14,000,000
2026: $14,000,000
2027: $14,000,000
He accepted, despite only wanting to sign a one year extension beforehand.
A lot of it comes down to how much more you're willing to offer them in the short-term compared to their Arbitration estimates on the Team Salary page. In this case, I gave him $4m more total than his estimates in his Arbitration years, but considering his current stats and ratings (which would've likely had him demanding at least $20m or more per year after) I've got him under contract for 4 "free agent" years, saving around $26m total.
A players Loyalty and Greed rating can come into play, as well. If he has a high Loyalty rating, he's more likely (but not guaranteed) to negotiate a long term deal early. A player w/ a high Greed rating will likely (but not guaranteed to) demand way more than you think is a fair offer.
It really just comes to trial and error... and also, it doesn't hurt to look at other teams histories and the real life contracts they negotiate w/ their players.
In this case, I feel as though I came away w/ a pretty sweet deal...