I want to drop a player from the 40 man to demote him and he has the option of electing free agency. I let him become a FA, but the game still has me on the hook for his salary next season. Is that correct?

Yes. Just like real-life MLB. If you drop a player, you are responsible for the remainder of their contract. If someone else picks the player up, that team only pays a pro-rated portion of the salary.

Posted by kschoenberg on 10/10/2018 8:58:00 AM (view original):
I want to drop a player from the 40 man to demote him and he has the option of electing free agency. I let him become a FA, but the game still has me on the hook for his salary next season. Is that correct?

• "I want to drop a player from the 40-man..." -- I assume you mean "remove a player from the 40-Man." Dropping a player implies releasing him.
• "...to demote him..." -- You don't need to remove a player from the 40-man to demote them. He just needs to clear waivers if he's out of options (assuming you are demoting from the BL to the minors).
• "...and he has the option of electing free agency." -- If he has an option for next year, but you want him gone, and he isn't picked up from waivers, hang on to him to see what he does.

If you are talking about Charlie Waters, he still has an option, so you could have just demoted him to the minors and left him on the 40. Or, once he cleared waivers, you could have removed him from the 40 if you didn't want to protect him from going FA. You could even pick him up now and put him back in your minors, if desired. He's not under contract for next season, so no harm no foul.

As I read it, the issue isn't that the player has options. If a player has more than three years of ML service time, even if he clears waivers he can refuse to be sent to the minors and elect free agency. At least, that's the way I understand the real life rule... not sure if the HBD rule is exactly the same. But it seems to me that this is why the player can become a free agent. And it seems to me the game treats him the same as if you outright released him.

Assuming Charley Waters is the player here, he was waived, then removed from the 40-man, then released. He has an option remaining, one year of ML service time, and no contract for next season (that world is currently in the playoffs). I've personally never had an HBD player refuse demotion after clearing waivers. Regardless, the player can now be picked up and placed into the minors, if desired.

He is inexpensive so either way it shouldn't matter much. But Id let him lf he wanted. Its been to long since I played to remember specifics but I think you can just demote and remove from 40 once they clear waivers.

It's not Charley Waters it is Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Santiago Carreras (Henderson Darr). He was on my 40 and I wanted to remove him. He has options.
When I attempted to remove him from the 40 the game said the Player had the choice of accepting the move or choosing Free Agency and that if I wanted to go through with allowing him to become a Free Agent I should release him.
I did that but was still on the hook for his salary for the next season.
When I saw that I signed him back as a FA, assigned him to AAA (where he had been), but didn't put him back on the 40.

The question is if a player elects to become a Free Agent (game text) then his salary shouldn't be on the books.

P.S. I don't know why the WIS Paste function is changing my link from Darr to Carreras - I have no such player. https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=7408994

Posted by opie100 on 10/12/2018 9:45:00 AM (view original):

Posted by kschoenberg on 10/10/2018 8:58:00 AM (view original):
I want to drop a player from the 40 man to demote him and he has the option of electing free agency. I let him become a FA, but the game still has me on the hook for his salary next season. Is that correct?

• "I want to drop a player from the 40-man..." -- I assume you mean "remove a player from the 40-Man." Dropping a player implies releasing him.
• "...to demote him..." -- You don't need to remove a player from the 40-man to demote them. He just needs to clear waivers if he's out of options (assuming you are demoting from the BL to the minors).
• "...and he has the option of electing free agency." -- If he has an option for next year, but you want him gone, and he isn't picked up from waivers, hang on to him to see what he does.

If you are talking about Charlie Waters, he still has an option, so you could have just demoted him to the minors and left him on the 40. Or, once he cleared waivers, you could have removed him from the 40 if you didn't want to protect him from going FA. You could even pick him up now and put him back in your minors, if desired. He's not under contract for next season, so no harm no foul.

1. Dropping a player from the 40-man means removing him from the 40 man roster.
2. I'm sorry, you're correct. I don't need to drop him from the 40 man to demote him, but I did need to drop him from the 40 man in order to call up the player that was replacing him on the ML roster. So, I needed to drop him from the 40 man in order to complete the transaction which was demoting him and calling someone else up that wasn't previously on the 40 man roster.
3. The game put up a banner that said the Player had the option of accepting the move or becoming a free agent. If I wanted to let him become a free agent I should release him. That message was what triggered the original post as I would have gladly allowed Darr to become a free agent to get him off my payroll.
I can't find anything in the real ML rules about a player getting to elect FA if they're being dropped

You really have to dig to find even the real life rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_transactions

Go down to the middle - "Veteran's Consent".

Far as I know, it isn't written up in the HBD rules anywhere I can find it, but obviously it's in the game. And as the Wiki says, letting him become a free agent is the same as releasing him.

Posted by kschoenberg on 10/13/2018 7:58:00 AM (view original):

Posted by opie100 on 10/12/2018 9:45:00 AM (view original):

Posted by kschoenberg on 10/10/2018 8:58:00 AM (view original):
I want to drop a player from the 40 man to demote him and he has the option of electing free agency. I let him become a FA, but the game still has me on the hook for his salary next season. Is that correct?

• "I want to drop a player from the 40-man..." -- I assume you mean "remove a player from the 40-Man." Dropping a player implies releasing him.
• "...to demote him..." -- You don't need to remove a player from the 40-man to demote them. He just needs to clear waivers if he's out of options (assuming you are demoting from the BL to the minors).
• "...and he has the option of electing free agency." -- If he has an option for next year, but you want him gone, and he isn't picked up from waivers, hang on to him to see what he does.

If you are talking about Charlie Waters, he still has an option, so you could have just demoted him to the minors and left him on the 40. Or, once he cleared waivers, you could have removed him from the 40 if you didn't want to protect him from going FA. You could even pick him up now and put him back in your minors, if desired. He's not under contract for next season, so no harm no foul.

1. Dropping a player from the 40-man means removing him from the 40 man roster.
2. I'm sorry, you're correct. I don't need to drop him from the 40 man to demote him, but I did need to drop him from the 40 man in order to call up the player that was replacing him on the ML roster. So, I needed to drop him from the 40 man in order to complete the transaction which was demoting him and calling someone else up that wasn't previously on the 40 man roster.
3. The game put up a banner that said the Player had the option of accepting the move or becoming a free agent. If I wanted to let him become a free agent I should release him. That message was what triggered the original post as I would have gladly allowed Darr to become a free agent to get him off my payroll.
I can't find anything in the real ML rules about a player getting to elect FA if they're being dropped

You cannot demote someone from the BL and remove them from the 40 in the same transaction. You have to demote first, then remove. Alternatively you can just designate them for assignment, which will remove them from the 40 immediately.

Posted by damag on 10/13/2018 9:17:00 AM (view original):
You really have to dig to find even the real life rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_transactions

Go down to the middle - "Veteran's Consent".

Far as I know, it isn't written up in the HBD rules anywhere I can find it, but obviously it's in the game. And as the Wiki says, letting him become a free agent is the same as releasing him.

I think you got it, but the strange part was I could demote him to AAA without a problem - it was the 40-man removal that caused the issue. Ahh well - that rule was probably put in to prevent owners like me from getting out of a contract. It worked. However, I was able to sign him as a FA and put him on AAA and not the 40-man. The risk, of course, was that someone else would have signed him for the minimum and I'd be stuck paying the rest.

Exactly the point. All these rules - waivers, Rule 5 draft, etc, - were put in place in real life so that a franchise can't just hide a good player in their minor leagues for his whole life. And to assure that they honor his contract.

Posted by kschoenberg on 10/14/2018 7:04:00 AM (view original):

Posted by damag on 10/13/2018 9:17:00 AM (view original):
You really have to dig to find even the real life rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_transactions

Go down to the middle - "Veteran's Consent".

Far as I know, it isn't written up in the HBD rules anywhere I can find it, but obviously it's in the game. And as the Wiki says, letting him become a free agent is the same as releasing him.

I think you got it, but the strange part was I could demote him to AAA without a problem - it was the 40-man removal that caused the issue. Ahh well - that rule was probably put in to prevent owners like me from getting out of a contract. It worked. However, I was able to sign him as a FA and put him on AAA and not the 40-man. The risk, of course, was that someone else would have signed him for the minimum and I'd be stuck paying the rest.

Was he already on AAA when you tried to remove him from the 40? Maybe you can't remove a multiple year contract guy from the 40 without releasing him first.