Choosing minor league contract over $6 million?

[thklein]

In my quick start league, I'm a few seasons in. Shelby Miller had a serious injury in the season before last and did not pitch at all in the previous season. His scout ratings are still really good, and he' healthy now, so I figured I'd try to sign him as a free agent. He was demanding about a $6,000,000 1 year contract, which I offered him. He told me he favored the offer, and then a couple days later said he got a better offer from another team, so I met his new demand. This happened a couple more times until I had offered him a little over $8,000,000 (still a one year deal). Then, on January 1st, he accepts a minor league deal from the Red Sox. I figure it's a glitch, so I go in commish mode and release him. I then offer him another $6,000,000 one year contract. The next day he accepts another minor league contract. I go into commish mode, release him again, make another offer, and he again takes a minor league offer. Why would he go from being in a bidding war involving multiple teams to refusing multi-million dollar offers in favor of minor league deals?.

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by thklein

In my quick start league, I'm a few seasons in. Shelby Miller had a serious injury in the season before last and did not pitch at all in the previous season. His scout ratings are still really good, and he' healthy now, so I figured I'd try to sign him as a free agent. He was demanding about a $6,000,000 1 year contract, which I offered him. He told me he favored the offer, and then a couple days later said he got a better offer from another team, so I met his new demand. This happened a couple more times until I had offered him a little over $8,000,000 (still a one year deal). Then, on January 1st, he accepts a minor league deal from the Red Sox. I figure it's a glitch, so I go in commish mode and release him. I then offer him another $6,000,000 one year contract. The next day he accepts another minor league contract. I go into commish mode, release him again, make another offer, and he again takes a minor league offer. Why would he go from being in a bidding war involving multiple teams to refusing multi-million dollar offers in favor of minor league deals?.

Must've been a head injury.

[Matt Arnold]

He shouldn't. If you want to upload your league (How to FTP files to OOTP Developments - Powered by Kayako Help Desk Software) we can have a look and fix cases like this for next year. Generally we have it set so that major contract > minor contract pretty much always.

[Kent814]

There is a problem with players taking international offers over a minor league deal. I know some players want to go overseized, but the ones that only get $10k deals would much rather go to the minors in real life

[thklein]

I uploaded the league and submitted a ticket. The league zip file is called "Shelby Miller Issue."

Another odd this was that I didn't get an email saying that he had accepted another offer, which I usually do get when a free agent I have made an offer to accepts another offer.

[Jobermallow]

Originally Posted by thklein

In my quick start league, I'm a few seasons in. Shelby Miller had a serious injury in the season before last and did not pitch at all in the previous season. His scout ratings are still really good, and he' healthy now, so I figured I'd try to sign him as a free agent. He was demanding about a $6,000,000 1 year contract, which I offered him. He told me he favored the offer, and then a couple days later said he got a better offer from another team, so I met his new demand. This happened a couple more times until I had offered him a little over $8,000,000 (still a one year deal). Then, on January 1st, he accepts a minor league deal from the Red Sox. I figure it's a glitch, so I go in commish mode and release him. I then offer him another $6,000,000 one year contract. The next day he accepts another minor league contract. I go into commish mode, release him again, make another offer, and he again takes a minor league offer. Why would he go from being in a bidding war involving multiple teams to refusing multi-million dollar offers in favor of minor league deals?.

I encountered a similar issue with a fictional league I'm currently running. I'm the GM for the Portland Roustabouts (one of 26 teams in the Kansas-Oregon Baseball Association) and have been largely stumbling, learning, and overall loving my experience in learning the intricacies of OOTP. (New player here with about two months of experience under my belt) Started in 2015 and it's now 2039 (I sim all the games and just handle the regular GM duties). A few years back I signed a 31 year old 5-star 1B, Rich Cunningham, to act as the center of my, then, new offense for three years. He won the MVP award and led my league in home runs for two years, in addition to sporting some great speed and stealing stats as well.

When his contact expired and he demanded somewhere around 35-40 million for his services, I let him walk and dealt some prospects to secure a budding 1B star from another team in order to prepare for the next season. Out of curiosity, I searched for Rich Cunningham at the start of the next year to see what team signed him as I didn't see any message announcing his arrival at a new team. That's when I discovered he was signed by a AA club, the Amarillo Xcalibur. He played 140 games for them in this past season, earning a 5.5 WAR and slugging 32 home runs. This is a total mystery to me. It's not like other clubs couldn't afford him- they had plenty of salary room to take on 35-40 million, even if that was a gross overpayment for a 35 year old aging superstar that by all rights should be entering a sharp decline (or at least that way my guess when I signed him to three years in the first place ).

Still, thought it was a fluke until I read this thread. Then I decided to see how many other players in my fictional league were of high talent and playing in the minor leagues. Turns out it was a dozen or so of 4.5 to 3 star, good caliber players playing in AA ball clubs- not AAA. Then, to reinforce this trend, I had a 2.5 star catcher (Eric Wescott) enter free agency demanding 15-16 million only to disappear into the AA-club sinkhole five days after free agency started. Catchers are in high demand for my league right now, so I know something must be up. Not sure how long this has been going on, and it's not terribly rampant in my league, but it is a strange occurrence that might be of interest.