Hey I'm back with a third comment on this video lol just wanted to say I've come back to reference this video countless times while playing OOTP, that notepad you show explaining the 3 different trajectories has been such a helpful reference, thanks again
This was such a good video, love that you put in the prep time to make that notepad document explaining the possible paths and then found an example of each on baseball reference, charting out very clearly which of their years were league minimum, which were arbitration, and which were free agency. Then you did a great job of explaining why the teams chose to sign the players to the extensions they did and how it benefited each party. Such useful information, great job.
So first I wanted to commend you for the work you have been doing for OOTP. I've been playing these games since 2014, and have always just kinda floundered around, never improved any teams and basically wasted a bunch of time (didn't stop me from buying it every year though lol) You discovered a lack of tutorials in the OOTP youtube community and have been bashing them out and every one of them has taught me something very important that I never knew, and is helping me take my game to the next level, so wanted to say thanks a lot for that and good on you for the great idea and good luck growing out your channel (I have made some OOTP vids myself but ended up stopping as I didn't think I was good enough to do it. Maybe after a few seasons off camera I will start them up again, never too many OOTP series on youtube!) But the other thing I wanted to do with this comment was kinda paraphrase what you taught us here to make sure I actually understand because this (and the rule 5 draft which I am watching next!) has been very confusing for me. So, is it safe to say that every single player who signs their first contract out of the draft begins their 6 years before they can be free agents? Or is it only once they play their first game in the MLB? Also, its assumed then that all players within their first 6 years are on 1 year contracts? The team can pay them whatever they want for the first 3 years (usually league minimum plus incentives) and then after 3 years arbitration starts. The player can make his first demand, and the team decides how to react by either meeting that demand, making their own offer (nickeling and diming the player a bit) or just walking away (non tender? Basically speeds up the player's ability to be a free agent? I guess a player who was non tendered can sign to a new team but doesn't get the benefit of arbitration ?) Of course, if the team and the player don't agree to each others offer, than the arbiter steps in and picks a salary based off the players performance the previous year. Sorry for the long ass comment and I don't expect you to address every single point, just lemme know if I am on the right track or if there is a big misunderstanding somewhere. Again, been loving your videos, they are teaching me a lot.
You've got a lot of it right. One area where you're wrong is that the service time clock doesn't start ticking when a player gets the draft signing bonus and enters the minor leagues. It starts ticking when they get called up to the majors, meaning that they need to spend 6+ years on the 25 man roster (or MLB disabled list) in order to unlock free agency. Imagine a player who gets called up in September and struggles, but finishes the year. His service time clock goes up 30 days. Now, imagine that he starts the next season in AAA again. His service time clock isn't ticking, as he's not in the majors. It only starts ticking again when he's on the 25 man roster. A player who is non-tendered, does, theoretically, become a free agent earlier than he normally would. But it's not a great circumstance, as they would have been kept around if they were any good/valuable in the first place. Those guys are pretty much going to take any major league offer they can get, usually at league minimum. The arbitration years that they would normally have left end up forfeited, and that's to the detriment of the player's earning potential. Like you said, they don't get the benefit of arbitration. Two guys who got non-tendered by the Blue Jays this past season were Ryan Goins and Tom Koehler. Koehler actually ended up getting a 1 yr, 2 mil (albeit incentive-heavy) deal from the Dodgers. Not a bad outcome for him. Goins had to settle for a minor league contract with the Royals, but he won a roster spot in Spring Training and is basically back on the minimum. As for the assumption that pre-free agency players are on one year deals, that's correct. They are one year deals that are auto-renewed. That is, of course, unless they sign a multi-year deal that skips some arbitration or pre-arbitration years, like Altuve did.
If a player say goes arbitration and/or gets much less then he demanded, does that affect their moral and possibly demotivate the individual for the season? or is that a non factor. Great Series Btw!
Can you do a tutorial about the types of contracts and how they relate to the inaugural draft? I started a fictional relegation league and went through the inaugural draft. I drafted the first 25 guys for my major league roster then just simmed the rest because i didnt have the patience to go through over 100 rounds of drafting. Then I found that the CPU had drafted ~10 guys in REALLY late rounds who were on major league contracts for some reason and so I basically had to release all of them because I didn't have room for them on my active roster, but I wasn't allowed to put them in the minors. These were like 0.5-1.5 star players btw. I don't understand how this happened. Did the CPU draft these players and sign them to major league contracts some how? I checked the contracts of all the guys I had personally drafted and they were all on Minor league contracts even though they were MLB caliber players, 2-5 stars. Any idea whats up with that?
As a relatively new player, this is by far the most difficult concept to get my head around. Does a player accrue service time just from being added to the 40 man? or is it only if he is on the active roster?
Pretty late response here, but they only accrue service time when on the 26 man major league roster OR on the major league injured list. The first part is pretty straightforward, the injured list part is a little more complex. The minor league teams have their own injured list, so if a player gets hurt in AAA he gets put on that team's minor league injured list and does not accrue service time. However, the major league affiliate of that AAA team may chose to call up the player and transfer him to the major league 60 day IL. They would now get paid a major league salary and accrue service time. The rationale for this would be to free up a spot on the 40 man roster since players on the 60 day IL are removed from the 40 man roster. Obviously also you could only do this for a severe enough injury.
@@WaffleLover-my1hi Thanks for the response. I'm right in thinking that a player will lose a minor league option by being on the 40 man roster even if theyre not promoted up to the active roster though right?
@@tomkmb4120 Yeah so after spring training anyone on the 40 man roster who is assigned to the minor leagues automatically uses their option year even though it isn't the traditional sense of being optioned from the MLB to AAA since they start the season in AAA.
@@WaffleLover-my1hi So realistically I'll want my prospects that are high potential only to be put on the 40 man no sooner than 3 years away from being Major League ready? What about prospects I include in the spring training roster that arent on the 40 man?
@@tomkmb4120 The timing of when you put prospects on the 40 man roster will likely be decided by when they hit rule 5 draft eligibility, which there is another tutorial about. But yeah that is generally 3 years after drafting the player. As for spring training rosters, they are by default set to 60 players and by default all 40 man guys are put on it giving you 20 extra slots. With those 20 extra slots you can promote minor leaguers and if you click on their contract during spring training you will see they are still on a minor league contract, whereas guys on the 40 man roster are on a league minimum major league contract. As long as those guys aren't on the active 26 man roster to begin opening day, then their contract will stay a minor league one and no option will be used while they stay in the minor leagues.
