Question about planned retirement

[Henry (Cleveland Nationals)]

Hey guys, I have a quick question in anticipation of regular FA. Is it right to allow multi-year bids on Ortiz? As the rules stand there is nothing to stop people doing this but I can envisage a situation where people offer a 2Y contract, and heavily backload it, knowing that he will retire next year and they will be off the hook for any obligation the following season. This would mean they could outbid a one-year bid, whilst actually paying less. Also, in real life a player wouldn't accept a 2Y contract if they were planning to retire after 1Y.


I would propose that if a player has announced his retirement after the season, either 1) you only allow 1y bids, or if someone does bid multi years, or 2) they have to pay 25% of the salary they had offered in subsequent years. To be clear, this is only in cases where a player has announced they are going to retire after the season, not in ones where the player unexpectedly retires (or at least hadn't announced it), where it seems reasonable to let teams off the salary hook.

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

This comimg from the guy who stole Papi from me in RFA last year with a 2 yrs, $39M (AAS $19.5M) bid, only to drop his backloaded $27M 2016 salary!!

[Henry (Cleveland Nationals)]

Haha that is true, though that is the point- I knew I would pay for it if I cut him. And i am!

Now someone could do the same thing but know they don't have to pay anything at all next year...

I think given we know he is going to retire it is a bit weird for him to be offered anything more than a 1 year contract, no?

PS by the way I remembered how come the 2y contract was allowed at that salary in RFA last year, was the Jamie Moyer rule.

[Deleted]

I say keep it simple. Everyone will be bidding on him under the same rules, and the same understanding that his salary would be forgiven next year.

If two people would be willing to pay $10 million on a one year contract, then two people will be willing to pay a 2 year contract with a 16.66 AAS, split $10 M and $23.33M

[Henry (Cleveland Nationals)]

I guess that's a fair point and another way to do it... It's probably a good thing to have given the new guys a heads up about the rules regarding treatment of retired players before it starts in that case!

[Deleted]

I disagree with that logic. As an example, I have no interest in bidding on Papi. Why should you be able to backload and get him cheeper in 2106 and reserve additional cap space to compete against me on another player?

We know he is retiring so only 1 year contracts should be permitted.

[Deleted]

What happens if he changes his mind and comes back for another season? I think since he's already announced his retirement if a team gives him a two year contract then the 25% penalty for dropping a player should be enforced. I don't care if someone wants to do a multi year deal but they shouldn't get off scott free since that isn't the spirit of the J Moyer rule

[Deleted]

the cap penalty will absolutely be enforced if he returns for another year.

Jim, no one is going to get David Ortiz cheaper than anyone else. Anyone can backload a contract on anyone. And since we all are 99% certain he will retire, that's going to push the price all the way up to where it should be.

Let's say everybody thinks David Ortiz is a 1 year, 6M player. You could offer that, or you could offer a 2 year contract, paying 6 M the first year and 14M in the second year. That contract actually looks like a 10M AAV contract, but we would all be gambling that it will be a 1 year, 6M contract. No one will be saving money against you, unless not everyone understands how this working.

We never know for sure whether a player will retire until he does. Until he does, the risk that he won't is on the highest bidder.