Does anybody know what happens when you don't have enough payroll left over to sign guys in arbitration?

I've got two absolute superstars that are asking about $9M each. I only have about $14M in payroll remaining after re-signing another key free agent. I could obviously offer those guys less than their asking price, but what if the Simmy Judge determines my offer is too low and they both win? Am I going to lose one of them for nothing?

The Sim will cover it, bit will randomly take from your other budgets to do so. When it happened to me, it took about 1m each from training, medical, scouting, etc.

Posted by McGirkTheJer on 12/29/2020 10:40:00 AM (view original):
The Sim will cover it, bit will randomly take from your other budgets to do so. When it happened to me, it took about 1m each from training, medical, scouting, etc.

So what should I do? Do I make offers to them? Offer them what they want? Offer them less? Let Sim handle it?

In arbitration I always offer 75-80% of what they are asking for. Sometimes you win, sometimes the player wins. In your case, if you win 1 and lose 1 it will only have to pull about $2M from other budgets. If you do not make offers to them the Sim will use a 70% offer figure and proceed as normal at the end of the arbitration period.

Another possibility is to sign them to long term deals. You can shift money from this season to future seasons in the deal as long as the average per year is the same as what they are asking for in a long term deal now.

Dyongquist is correct,

I would add that if they are already at 9M a piece then they are likely to already be at Year 5 Arb. Meaning you would want to get them signed long term if you want to keep them beyond this season. Incidentally I have gone up to as high as 85 - 90 percent of their ask. It just depends on if it was a down year for them last season. .

They are only Year 4, so second year Arb. They are superstars with 87 OVR ratings, one is asking $8.9 and the other $9.1. I'll go ahead and sign them to 5-year deals. Thanks guys!!