Does anyone have a pretty solid idea of what factors a player will consider when making a decision on a player or mutual option?

Specifically -

1) Does team success play a role?

2) Does player playing time or production get factored in?

3) Does the amount of salary he is due in the option year make a difference whether he stays or goes? (I'd sure hope so).

4) Will his designation as a Type A (or B) play a large role in his decision?

5) Might his patience rating impact the decision?

For reference purposes, the player who makes me consider these questions is Jay Black.

He's worth the $8.5M to me next season, so if he's willing to stay I'd keep him, but if he hits the open market I know someone will be willing to pay more (particularly in terms of years) than I am. I'm trying to get an idea now of whether I'll have to fill his hole in the lineup next season or the season after.

My limited experience suggests that it is all about the $$. If they are likely to get a bigger payday, they are gone. Which would suggest that it would be a coin toss for your guy. Looks like his pay is pretty reasonable.

I never bothered to get it down to a precise number, but my experience has been that, if the final season has a "player only" option, players will aceept somewhere around 2% less than their total demand compared to a similar contract with a mutual option or no option in the final season.

Not huge money, but it can make a difference depending on how close you are to cap.

Team success does not appear to play as big of a role as I would have thought. One of my best players bolted a 100 win team to join a 73 win team and never gave me chance to negotiate with him during FA. It's probably $$ driven, but maybe there was a reason he didn't want to stay - I don't know what it would have been.

Hey, hey, I won 75!!! He saw a team on the rise and wanted to be part of it.

The only time I will ever use a player option in negotiating with a guy is if I am offering a huge max contract to a guy...adding the player option in makes the guy like my offer even better...and there is no way he would ever exercise it when he is making 20 million.

I do, however, when offering fairly decent contracts to good but not superstar players often add in a mutual option. A team option is looked at by a player as a negative in negotiating, but mutual has no real effect on whether or not he takes the deal. However, it does give me an out if I need it in the final year...and I rarely ever see players opt out of a long term balanced contract (on the other hand if the last year is smaller money plus there was a bonus factored in, I would expect a guy to opt out).

Quote: Originally Posted By MikeT23 on 6/01/2010Hey, hey, I won 75!!! He saw a team on the rise and wanted to be part of it.

True dat Mike...I was just going by memory. You should gimme a break once in awhile. I've publicly lauded your strategy numerous times...

Well, you can take solace in the fact that, despite my team improving to 89 wins with 3 of your players, you still won the division by 12 games.