I have a pitcher who has a contract expiring at the end of the current season. When I try to negotiate with him, his notes say, "With free-agency looming, I'm going to at least see what the market has to offer. Let's talk again in the offseason."
Will I be able to negotiate with him in the off-season before the free-agency period? Or does this mean I'll be bidding with every other team for his services?
Thanks

Most likely you won’t have the opportunity to resign him until he is a FA and will have to compete for his services.

He is definitely go to free agency.

I just offered a guy what I believe to be the max in free agency. $10M bonus, $20M/5 years, player option, no trade clause. And he came back and said "When I got your last offer, I was surprised to see how low it was." I realize these messages are randomly generated but just to verify, there's nothing more I can offer right?

Posted by Cheno5 on 2/21/2021 5:23:00 AM (view original):
I just offered a guy what I believe to be the max in free agency. $10M bonus, $20M/5 years, player option, no trade clause. And he came back and said "When I got your last offer, I was surprised to see how low it was." I realize these messages are randomly generated but just to verify, there's nothing more I can offer right?

Yes, you've offered a max deal but someone else is leading due to the tiebreaking formula.

What is the tiebreaking formula?

No sure if this is exactly right, but I think in descending order of importance: Previous Team; Favorable Park Factors (pitcher or hitter); Strength of Coaching (pitcher or hitter).

If I'm getting beat on a max deal, I usually assume his previous team wants him back.

Here is why neither of us did not sign that player Cheno5


https://help.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014299331-A-ML-free-agent-in-our-world-has-several-contracts-offered-to-him-that-are-the-same-exact-value-How-is-it-determined-who-he-will-sign-with-

When a free agent has multiple exact offers of any value at the ML level the tiebreakers are as follows: relevant IQs of the coaching staff and ballpark. If the players previous franchise is also bidding on him, then that franchise will receive a loyalty bonus.

When the coaching staff is used to break the tie position players will look at the hitting IQ of the hitting coach and the fielding IQ of the fielding coach. Pitchers will look at the pitching IQ of the pitching coach and the bullpen coach. Please note that an FA will sign with the team that has better coaches in hand, which may or may not be the team that ends up with the best coach and/or staff.

In cases where the offers are still tied and the coaching staff has been factored in ballpark is used to determine which franchise the player will sign with. Pitchers always want to pitch in a pitchers park, while position players will always want to play in a hitters park.

When a free agent has multiple exact offers of any value at the minor league level the tiebreaker is organizational depth at the player's primary position.

A few notes - loyalty bonus won't kick in if the player hasn't been there a while. Also, it's just the total rating of the two coaches for coaching win.

In one of my leagues, someone was very confident they'd get a coveted FA SP because they had a 98 PC. But they only had a 78 BU. Another team ended up with a 94 PC and an 83 BU and so was able to bump them.