I cant remember the last time I won an arbitration battle. Its seriously been years. Every season there's a decent player who you know you dont plan on signing long term, but worth keeping around on a short term basis. I'd like to save a bit of cash on those guys, so try to sign them for about 85 to 90% of their asking price. Arb always goes to the player. Has something changed in the system or am I just on a really bad streak?

I felt the same way for a while. I was offering 85% to every player and losing every one it seemed. I recently started offering 70% and now it seems like i'm winning more than I lose. Not sure if there is something there or not.

Huh, I've always done 80% and seem to get it as far as I can recall. Then again, last time I did it was more than a year ago.

I'm willing to say this is probably THE most random part of the game I've seen. Other things like players signing when you don't expect them to, or taking the first offer when you expect them to ask for more, those are predictably rare. Arb results seem like a complete coin flip to me.

Maybe I'll try lowering my offers in the future. I wonder if 85% is too high and there's some threshold around 70 to 80% that's more likely to win arbitration. Appreciate the feedback.

90% offered as part of Arb strategy, and results are random enough to "feel" like 50/50. It doesn't really matter on Arb strategy, other than the payroll savings as the franchise winning has no negative effect on player relations the next season; EXCEPTION -- the 5th year Arb.

I noticed for the first time today that if the average salary for their position is lower than what they are asking for, and you offer the average, you will win. I won 4 or 5 cases today doing this. For as long as I've played this game I would offer a a little less than their asking, maybe around 500k, and I don't win many that way. But offering the average seems to tilt things in your favor quite a bit.

Posted by mrclutch_24 on 5/13/2020 10:47:00 PM (view original):
I noticed for the first time today that if the average salary for their position is lower than what they are asking for, and you offer the average, you will win. I won 4 or 5 cases today doing this. For as long as I've played this game I would offer a a little less than their asking, maybe around 500k, and I don't win many that way. But offering the average seems to tilt things in your favor quite a bit.

I do this all the time. Still not guaranteed but it's gives me better results.

Won three of four Arbs today. All but one were asking for less than the league average. I offered 80% on all of them... just my habit. Still think it's random. But I did spend 3 million less than I expected to.