I got these 2 answers while trying to resign 1 of my free agents.

" You could have signed me cheap last season - now I'm heading for free agency. I'll enjoy the bidding war. "
" You should have signed me when you had the chance! Now I'm filing for free agency. You can't offer me enough money to... " (I can't get the rest of the message to show)

Problem is, all last season he never gave me a chance to resign him. It frustrates me because it is obviously bull **** but also because my budget will likely be more messed up than it needs to be for this season because I allocated money to resign him and now it will likely go to waste. The messages they give while setting budgets are often not helpful at all and then you can't transfer the money to scouting budgets...

Maybe this is just venting but definitely frustrating.

The messages are, generally speaking, window dressing.

Last season you say "he never gave me the chance to resign him".

What does that mean?

You tried making an offer and he said "let's talk in the offseaon" or something to that effect?

If that's the case, I think he was never going to sign in either season. The language makes it a bit confusing, but only if you fail to understand they are simply random messages all meaning the same thing.

I literally couldn't make an offer to him last season as it would not let me. I forget the exact message but it was something along the lines of waiting until free agency. I guess it only bothers me because of the wording. At least pick a reasonable message. Also, why couldn't he just say while setting budgets, "Sorry, I'm filing for free agency no matter what." as some do. I realize there are some hints but it's dumb, in my opinion, to have messages that can be taken in multiple different ways. Again, it's a lot of venting about the situation but also about the restrictive budget transfer rules when there are so many variables in play.

Right. That guy was never going to sign last season and likely won't this season either.

I will say that he might sign if you throw a really ridiculous number at him, but it's usually more than they are worth.

The wording generally doesn't mean anything. It is just the action that goes with the words that means anything.

They'll sign last season but the timing matters. Let's say you're in preseason S35, re-sign the guys you want from S35 but also go into S36 and extend anybody you want out of that pool also. I have never ever seen a future guy say "thanks but no thanks I'm leaving" all the way in spring training the season before. You just have to remember to do it early enough. I don't know the exact cutoff point but it usually works until at least the all-star game

Posted by pjfoster13 on 6/27/2018 7:51:00 AM (view original):
They'll sign last season but the timing matters. Let's say you're in preseason S35, re-sign the guys you want from S35 but also go into S36 and extend anybody you want out of that pool also. I have never ever seen a future guy say "thanks but no thanks I'm leaving" all the way in spring training the season before. You just have to remember to do it early enough. I don't know the exact cutoff point but it usually works until at least the all-star game

I checked all season and I already have a guy this season who says "With free-agency looking, I'm going to at least see what the market has to offer. Let's talk again in the offseason."