I think your issues may be two-fold:
First, I'm seeing the minor league signing bonuses for all minor league signings since the last patch. Again, this is 100 percent new since the last patch. I have a league I've been running since OOTP 16 and had seen very few minor league signings with bonuses, especially after the start of the season. Now, every single minor league free agent signing has a bonus included (usually $40K-60K) even if the player has never been in the big leagues and has no chance to get there. Really hoping the devs see this and can do something about it.
As for the sign and release, my guess is that you have some sort of roster rules and/or small minor leagues that the AI just can't handle properly. There was a bug a few versions back that made the sign and release a common issue. Since it was resolved, it's much much less common and usually is the result of odd roster rules or having just 1-2 minor league levels coupled with strict roster rules.
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