I'm trying to improve my FA bidding strategy wise. Can someone give me an idea of how much a mutual option is worth?

I see that clearly for example 2/$5 million per year with 2nd year being mutual option is worth more than 1/$5 million, but is it worth say more to the player than say... 2/$4.99 million per year with 2nd year guaranteed. Or does the player simply say $10 mil total (even though option) >>> $9.98 .

Or is the mutual option valued at its decline price, so is say a 2/$5 with option valued at $6.25 million total? Something in between?

Far as I know it doesn’t work in those terms at all. What matters to the free agent is the total dollars of the contract. If you put an option on the last season, it may serve as a tiebreaker if it comes into play as such.

So to answer your question, it’s 10M > 9.98 regardless of options.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re only meeting a player’s demand for the term and putting an option on the final year, he sometimes rejects a mutual option.

My question is how much is the team option worth to the FA? (how much does this devalue the offer to them)?

Based on what I have seen and heard talked about it would be like damag said if 4 teams offered 2/$5 for a total $10 mill team 1 no options may be the best 2 player option 3 mutal 4 team. so it would rank as the lowest but wouldnt diminish the value. If the team offered a 10,000,001 with a team option they would be the top offer. If that makes any sense.

Effectively 1/10th of one cent. Only a tiebreaker for otherwise identical total $ deals.

The sim doesn't consider the concept of guaranteed money.

Posted by mktulu2 on 5/10/2018 9:53:00 AM (view original):
Based on what I have seen and heard talked about it would be like damag said if 4 teams offered 2/$5 for a total $10 mill team 1 no options may be the best 2 player option 3 mutal 4 team. so it would rank as the lowest but wouldnt diminish the value. If the team offered a 10,000,001 with a team option they would be the top offer. If that makes any sense.

I think this is accurate with the small exception that I believe a player option to be valued more than no option.
The player holds the cards, and if his ratings increase he could opt out in hopes of finding more $$ on the market, whereas no option doesn't afford him that luxury.

So I would rank them as follows:

Player Option
No Option
Mutual Option
Team Option

But the others are also correct in that the only time it would matter is in the case of multiple offers of the same exact dollar amount.

I also believe that so long as the dollar amount is equal, a shorter contract will trump a longer one.

ie. 3X8M is greater than 4X6M, even though total dollar amount for both is 24M.

I can confirm team options effect value, but to what extent, I don't know. It's possible I've overlooked something, but I've lost FA's to less money when I've offered team options enough times that I stopped giving them out.

I haven't seen any evidence mutual options effect value at all so I give them out like candy.

Can’t say for sure if it’s happened EVERY time, but far as I can remember, when a player has asked for a multi year deal and I offer his demand with a team option on the final year, the player refuses. And I usually get the “you think that’s all I’m worth” message.

The way I take that is that the player values the team option year as $0. Which is why one might lose to a competing bid with less total $.