Today is internal free agent signing day and I've got two guys I would like to keep who both say that they are going free agency no matter what, but they give me the ability to offer a contract.  Anyone know how much over asking I need to go?
One is asking 3yrs at 6.5M per, the other wants 5 yrs at 7.9M.

They are going to free agency no matter what.

I don't believe that is accurate as I have seen a previous thread discussing having to exceed their demands by a specific percentage. I tried searching for the thread but there are a lot of threads with free agent in the title.

From my understanding, if they say "I'm definitely testing free agency" then that's what they're doing; you can't even offer a contract.  If it's "unless you really surprise me with a nice offer" that's a different story.

Posted by burnsy483 on 10/24/2013 12:53:00 PM (view original):
From my understanding, if they say "I'm definitely testing free agency" then that's what they're doing; you can't even offer a contract.  If it's "unless you really surprise me with a nice offer" that's a different story.

This is correct; and the "unless you surprise me" message does come with a specific percentage over their "demands" that they will sign for.

Posted by dedelman on 10/24/2013 12:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by burnsy483 on 10/24/2013 12:53:00 PM (view original):
From my understanding, if they say "I'm definitely testing free agency" then that's what they're doing; you can't even offer a contract.  If it's "unless you really surprise me with a nice offer" that's a different story.

This is correct; and the "unless you surprise me" message does come with a specific percentage over their "demands" that they will sign for.

I also agree that this is the correct answer.

Well that is just mean that they let me offer them a contract so they can just reject it.

No, what I'm saying is that you can't physically offer a contract.  It's grayed out and you can't input numbers.  Is that not the case?

It is if they've said "No matter what".

That is not the case. I am in the day right after budget day, where you resign your own free agents. Both of these guys say they are "Filing for free agency no matter what" but they will allow me to make offers.

Posted by overeasy on 10/24/2013 1:10:00 PM (view original):
That is not the case. I am in the day right after budget day, where you resign your own free agents. Both of these guys say they are "Filing for free agency no matter what" but they will allow me to make offers.

Yes, and they will reject anything, as far as I can tell.

OK, that's interesting, I thought it wouldn't let you.

You can certainly try, there's no harm, right?

I believe additional years help a lot. Try 5 years at 6.5 for the first guy.