I have a 34 year old pitcher that is willing to sign a contract extension right now (during our current season). Will he still be willing to do so at the start of next season or will he opt for FA? I'd really like to see if his attributes start to slip before I resign him.

Post his profile. Likely slippage is already underway. If he has future current and short term future value to your team I would extend him. A good SP on the open market can command a big payday.

Sorry for the cut and paste link. I need to clear something on my computer.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=6611137

He hasn't slipped one bit as of yet. That's my fear. What will he look like next season? My question is will he still re-sign next year or head to FA?

If you have a high training budget, he really won't start declining until 36 or 37 at earliest.

Agreed with strikeout. If your Training is good, he should not decline at 35. With 98 Patience he should be willing to re-sign... unless there's some sort of trigger in case he qualifies for Type A or Type B. I'm not sure if there is or not.

GoldieGamma is also right. I'm guessing you can re-sign him for about 6 or 6.5 mil. Depending on how pitching veterans are valued in your world, he could get twice that in free agency.

How long his contract demand is would also be a factor, in case you don't want to pay him at age 37 and 38.

Leading indicators of decline are velocity and stamina. They will essentially always decline for at least 2, more commonly 3 seasons before critical ratings start to decline. It can take longer than that.

If his velocity and stamina are still at peak you're absolutely safe to sign him for 2 more seasons and probably 3. If each has declined just a tick then I'd risk 2 seasons but not 3.

Edit-- another consideration is that the leading indicators decline over the offseason, but the key ratings (splits, pitches, control) almost always decline in season. So if a guy rolls over to the next season and doesn't lose any points in the key ratings, it doesn't mean he won't drop 2-3 points in each key rating over the season.

No decline yet on any attribute. I always max. training budget. He only wants a 3 season extension so sounds like I'd be smart to re-sign him now and not chance it. As far as salary goes, he wants the same $5.8 million per year as his current contract and I think a bargain for what he's given me throughout his career. Thanks for the input everyone. I'm just now to the point in my HBD career of dealing with older players contracts so wanted to pose my question to be sure. Still would like to know for sure if he would have been willing to re-sign. My guess is that he would given his patience.

Posted by bem7742 on 11/3/2018 2:06:00 PM (view original):
No decline yet on any attribute. I always max. training budget. He only wants a 3 season extension so sounds like I'd be smart to re-sign him now and not chance it. As far as salary goes, he wants the same $5.8 million per year as his current contract and I think a bargain for what he's given me throughout his career. Thanks for the input everyone. I'm just now to the point in my HBD career of dealing with older players contracts so wanted to pose my question to be sure. Still would like to know for sure if he would have been willing to re-sign. My guess is that he would given his patience.

1) He's very likely to re-sign.
2) He's very likely to retain his current value or almost all of that value, barring injury, for a 3-year contract.
3) His demands will only drop if his OVR drops in the offseason. It might-- at 35 he's super likely to drop a point or so in velocity, which might drop his OVR--but if his OVR drops only a little so will his demands.

So, I agree with you on re-signing. No reason to chance this just to save $200K a year x 3.

Posted by dedelman on 11/3/2018 2:42:00 PM (view original):
Leading indicators of decline are velocity and stamina. They will essentially always decline for at least 2, more commonly 3 seasons before critical ratings start to decline. It can take longer than that.

If his velocity and stamina are still at peak you're absolutely safe to sign him for 2 more seasons and probably 3. If each has declined just a tick then I'd risk 2 seasons but not 3.

Edit-- another consideration is that the leading indicators decline over the offseason, but the key ratings (splits, pitches, control) almost always decline in season. So if a guy rolls over to the next season and doesn't lose any points in the key ratings, it doesn't mean he won't drop 2-3 points in each key rating over the season.

Real good stuff right here.