So here's a crazy one...A player in my world was traded for in season 29 by Team A, but never assigned, so AI released him. Team A was on the hook for his $6.25M/ea over the next 3 seasons (through 32). He was claimed by Team B, which used him for a year then designated and waived him. Team A won the waiver! Now in season 31, Team A has designated/waived him again. We're 102 games in, and his claiming salary is $122k. Which equates to $327k for a full year.

So, my question, if I claim him, is he going to cost me $6.25M or $327k for the final year of his contract? He's a decent bench piece, but definitely not worth the $6M.

If it shows as $122k, then you're probably looking at $327k for the final year. That may or may not be a bug.

We ran into a somewhat similar situation a number of seasons ago in Mantle. We had an owner who was getting booted for failing to adhere to world rules. On his way out, he threw an end of season hissy fit which included (among other things) releasing players with seasons left on their contracts. We were able to arrange with the owners that claimed the released guys and the new owner to return the released players back to the original team. But when the new owner attempted to trade one of the players in question, only the $327 portion of his contract was being moved in the deal, with the rest staying behind with the original team.

It seems that once a player is released, his contract is "split" between the $327k minimum and the rest. The $327k portion of the contract travels with the player as he moves from team to team, while the remainder stays with the releasing team.

In our case, we had to get ADMIN involved to "rejoin" the contract into a single contract.

I didn't want to risk the 6.5M next season so I didn't claim... No one did, so I guess I'll never know...