Have a stud player and was going to offer him a Long Term contract and not go to arbitration. Instead, to get the extra year, I offered him arb and then did the long term contract loophole in the arbitration settlement window. He turned it down saying he wants to test free agency. My question: any chance he will change his mind during the season and take the long term deal? Or am I screwed with him going to free agency?

Too late warning, I guess, but Admin said a few months ago they were going to close that loophole.

I suppose there's a 1% chance of anything, but my experience is that once a player says he's leaving the only thing that possibly changes his mind is being traded to another team. If you keep him, he's walking.

Probably not during the season. Perhaps after rollover, but odds aren't particularly good.

Posted by damag on 3/21/2020 12:34:00 PM (view original):
Too late warning, I guess, but Admin said a few months ago they were going to close that loophole.

I suppose there's a 1% chance of anything, but my experience is that once a player says he's leaving the only thing that possibly changes his mind is being traded to another team. If you keep him, he's walking.

I have a player who is set on going to Free Agency this offseason due to a similar situation. I have a trade offer on the table involving this player, which I'm inclined to accept anyway, but my question is whether or not I will have an advantage over everyone else in the upcoming bidding war for this guy (if he doesn't decide to sign with his new team.)

Put him in the minors the whole year. Next offseason you can sign him long term because he will not have hit 6 years in the ML.

Are you sure about this Seventy? If I’m going to demote a stud player for the entire year I want to make sure this is a fact.

Yep, seems questionable to me. Anyone want to refute?

so did they close the loophole?

Posted by damag on 3/23/2020 12:20:00 PM (view original):
Yep, seems questionable to me. Anyone want to refute?

Quote post by sfpvideo on 3/23/2020 12:01:00 PM:
Are you sure about this Seventy? If I’m going to demote a stud player for the entire year I want to make sure this is a fact.


I'd say it sounds reasonable. Doing this means next season he'd be at arb3 again. I've done it earlier and made a few players go through arb1 twice. Don't see a reason why this would work differently.

Now he STILL might not want to sign LT, if they fixed the bug, so I'd definitely be curious about THAT result.

I've had a player go to five arbs, because I (unintentionally) dragged out his service time... he spent one and a half seasons in the minors after one and a half in the bigs. (He was a failed first-round pick.) Now, he also had 99 Patience... even after five arbs he would still have taken the LT. Which is to say, he never declared he wanted to walk.

I just can't see how this would work. You have a player whose contract is up, but if you bury him in AAA and leave him on the 40, then wouldn't his contract automatically roll over at 65k or something like that? There's gotta be something about a post-arb player that his arb years invalidate that.

Posted by sfpvideo on 3/23/2020 12:01:00 PM (view original):
Are you sure about this Seventy? If I’m going to demote a stud player for the entire year I want to make sure this is a fact.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Yes it works. Case in point is my player, Player Profile: Rubby Mercedes - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports. I accidentally forgot to sign him long term last year. So I sent him to the minors for the entire season. Now this season, I arb'd him for a 4th time. And now he says he wants to sign long term deal. Which I will do by the end of the season. Waiting until the end of season just in case of injury.