Post by Dodgers GM (Rob) on Feb 8, 2015 22:22:45 GMT -5
Each off-season a GM may restrict pending free agents, making those players Restricted Free Agents (RFAs). These players must be publicly announced and posted in the appropriate thread (along with franchise tags) by 11:59PM EST, DEC 31st. Please note that FAILURE to publicly declare said players as "Restricted" shall forfeit the right of that GM to restrict those players. Any and all Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) shall be subject to regular, unrestricted free agent bidding as outlined previously. If you miss the deadline to post your tags, then all of your pending free agents will becomes UFAs.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time. We are using a blind bidding system.
Bids can be PMed to the "Free Agent Bids" account.
A list of RFAs will be compiled by an administrator beforehand, thus there will be no need to post RFA players. RFA bidding will take place over the first two weeks of free agency auctions in the offseason. One week for hitters, one week for pitchers.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA
Restricting a player provides a semi-protective measure to help a GM retain a free agent, while not obligating that GM to retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
Here are the numbers you must follow when offering a contract to a restricted free agent:
If AAS <= $3M, then any length can be given up to 5 yrs
If AAS > $3M, then MINIMUM 2 yr deal
If AAS > $6M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
If AAS > $9M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
If AAS > $12M, then a 5 yr deal
If no one offers a bid on an RFA, the tag holder can choose either to keep them 1-2 years on a 500k salary, or 3-4 years on a 800k salary.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the 1.) contract term (number of years), 2.) total contract amount, 3.) AAS, and 4.) breakdown of the salary offer for each year of term of the contract OR clearly state it is equally allocated to each year. If the offer is not specific and does not include the above criteria, then it will be deemed an invalid bid.
Both the bidder and the tag holder must stay within the guidelines for salary spread in rule 6, copiedd below for you convenience.
SALARY SPREAD AND BID INCREMENTS - from Rule 6
When Bidding on Free agents, GMs must make bids within certain structural limits. This is to prevent excessive backloading of long contracts. Contract structure guidelines and examples are below:
Bids with AAS of 7,000,001 or greater:
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 80% or over 120%
Example: 5yrs, AAS=$10.0m 14:$8m, 15:$10m, 16:$10m, 17:$10m, 18:$12m
Bids with AAS of 3,000,001 - 7,000,000
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 60% or over 140%
example: 4yrs, AAS=$6.0m 14:$3.6m, 15:$5.4m, 16:$6.6m, 17:$8.4m
Bids with AAS of 3,000,000 or less
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 40% or over 160%
example: 3yrs, AAS=$2.0 14:$.8m, 15:$2.0m, 16:$3.2m
The minimum increment for a bid is 100k. Bids that include any denomination lower than 100k (i.e. 50K, 10k, 1k, 100, 10 etc.) will be considered invalid and will not count.
Rounding to 100k increments will not make bids invalid for salary spread. If a bid violates the salary spread rules, the League Office has the discretion to reform the bid in accordance with the winning AAS and the same number of years. This discretion will generally be granted unless there is a pattern of submitting invalid bids or other reason to believe this lenience is being abused. Bids that do not have the sufficient number of years, however, will be invalid regardless of AAS.
MATCHING OR DECLINING
The GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid. The holder of the tag only has to match the AAS, they do not have to match the years and can rearrange the salaries as they see fit for their team, as long as they are following the guidelines for salary spread stated in Rule 6.
Here are the guidelines for the tag holder on deciding the years of the contract.
If AAS <= $3M, 1 - 5 years.
If the offer is 500k - 700k you can only contract for 1 or 2 years at this salary, but you have the option to raise the offer to 800k and contract for 3 or 4 years
If AAS > $3M, 2 - 5 years
If AAS > $9M, 3 - 5 years
If AAS > $15M, 4 - 5 years
If the restricting GM chooses to decline to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player to the exact terms of the winning bid - there is NO option to remove or reneg on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance clock commences as soon as the last winning bid has been posted for that week's batch of RFA players.
Trades between the tag holder and the winning bidder can only occur after the winning bid has been matched.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered in Rule 6.
RFA COMPENSATION
If a GM loses a player in the RFA process they are entitled to compensation as follows:
RFA signs with new team for AAS of...
...$5,000,000 or less then...
...between $5,000,001 - $8,000,000 then...
...between $8,000,001 - 11,000,000 then...
...between 11,000,001 -14,000,000 then...
...14,000,001 or greater then...
If a team signs multiple Free Agents at the same level (for instance, signing Jason Heyward for AAS of 16M and David Price for AAS of 18M) the signing team loses his 1st round pick and next round pick (2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th). The teams losing the player will still get two 1st round supplemental picks.
Supplemental picks occur in the current year's draft following restricted free agency. The pick order in the supplemental round will be determined by the order of the standings for the past season (by order of the team losing the player), except that when multiple picks are received the second, third, etc. picks shall be placed at the end of that supplemental round.
Teams losing picks lose them in the following year's draft.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time. We are using a blind bidding system.
Bids can be PMed to the "Free Agent Bids" account.
A list of RFAs will be compiled by an administrator beforehand, thus there will be no need to post RFA players. RFA bidding will take place over the first two weeks of free agency auctions in the offseason. One week for hitters, one week for pitchers.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA
Restricting a player provides a semi-protective measure to help a GM retain a free agent, while not obligating that GM to retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
Here are the numbers you must follow when offering a contract to a restricted free agent:
If AAS <= $3M, then any length can be given up to 5 yrs
If AAS > $3M, then MINIMUM 2 yr deal
If AAS > $6M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
If AAS > $9M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
If AAS > $12M, then a 5 yr deal
If no one offers a bid on an RFA, the tag holder can choose either to keep them 1-2 years on a 500k salary, or 3-4 years on a 800k salary.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the 1.) contract term (number of years), 2.) total contract amount, 3.) AAS, and 4.) breakdown of the salary offer for each year of term of the contract OR clearly state it is equally allocated to each year. If the offer is not specific and does not include the above criteria, then it will be deemed an invalid bid.
Both the bidder and the tag holder must stay within the guidelines for salary spread in rule 6, copiedd below for you convenience.
SALARY SPREAD AND BID INCREMENTS - from Rule 6
When Bidding on Free agents, GMs must make bids within certain structural limits. This is to prevent excessive backloading of long contracts. Contract structure guidelines and examples are below:
Bids with AAS of 7,000,001 or greater:
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 80% or over 120%
Example: 5yrs, AAS=$10.0m 14:$8m, 15:$10m, 16:$10m, 17:$10m, 18:$12m
Bids with AAS of 3,000,001 - 7,000,000
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 60% or over 140%
example: 4yrs, AAS=$6.0m 14:$3.6m, 15:$5.4m, 16:$6.6m, 17:$8.4m
Bids with AAS of 3,000,000 or less
Any year of the contract can't be paid under 40% or over 160%
example: 3yrs, AAS=$2.0 14:$.8m, 15:$2.0m, 16:$3.2m
The minimum increment for a bid is 100k. Bids that include any denomination lower than 100k (i.e. 50K, 10k, 1k, 100, 10 etc.) will be considered invalid and will not count.
Rounding to 100k increments will not make bids invalid for salary spread. If a bid violates the salary spread rules, the League Office has the discretion to reform the bid in accordance with the winning AAS and the same number of years. This discretion will generally be granted unless there is a pattern of submitting invalid bids or other reason to believe this lenience is being abused. Bids that do not have the sufficient number of years, however, will be invalid regardless of AAS.
MATCHING OR DECLINING
The GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid. The holder of the tag only has to match the AAS, they do not have to match the years and can rearrange the salaries as they see fit for their team, as long as they are following the guidelines for salary spread stated in Rule 6.
Here are the guidelines for the tag holder on deciding the years of the contract.
If AAS <= $3M, 1 - 5 years.
If the offer is 500k - 700k you can only contract for 1 or 2 years at this salary, but you have the option to raise the offer to 800k and contract for 3 or 4 years
If AAS > $3M, 2 - 5 years
If AAS > $9M, 3 - 5 years
If AAS > $15M, 4 - 5 years
If the restricting GM chooses to decline to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player to the exact terms of the winning bid - there is NO option to remove or reneg on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance clock commences as soon as the last winning bid has been posted for that week's batch of RFA players.
Trades between the tag holder and the winning bidder can only occur after the winning bid has been matched.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered in Rule 6.
RFA COMPENSATION
If a GM loses a player in the RFA process they are entitled to compensation as follows:
RFA signs with new team for AAS of...
...$5,000,000 or less then...
- ...Franchise losing player receives nothing.
- ...Signing team loses no picks.
...between $5,000,001 - $8,000,000 then...
- ...Franchise losing player receives a 3rd round Supplemental pick.
- ...Signing team loses 3rd round pick.
...between $8,000,001 - 11,000,000 then...
- ...Franchise losing player receives a 2nd round Supplemental pick.
- ...Signing team loses 2nd round pick.
...between 11,000,001 -14,000,000 then...
- ...Franchise losing player receives a 1st round Supplemental pick.
- ...Signing team loses 1st round pick.
...14,000,001 or greater then...
- ...Franchise losing player receives two 1st round Supplemental picks.
- ...Signing team loses 1st round pick.
If a team signs multiple Free Agents at the same level (for instance, signing Jason Heyward for AAS of 16M and David Price for AAS of 18M) the signing team loses his 1st round pick and next round pick (2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th). The teams losing the player will still get two 1st round supplemental picks.
Supplemental picks occur in the current year's draft following restricted free agency. The pick order in the supplemental round will be determined by the order of the standings for the past season (by order of the team losing the player), except that when multiple picks are received the second, third, etc. picks shall be placed at the end of that supplemental round.
Teams losing picks lose them in the following year's draft.