Restricted FA vs. Unrestricted FA

[Astros GM (Will)]

I saw a lot of clamor for restricted free agents contract offers being suppressed too much vs. unrestricted free agents and to have some form of specialized bidding process so thought I'd try to create a proposal. This proposal would likely require even more attention paid during free agency, and I think benefits bidding teams more than retaining teams, but may make free agency even more fun (big question mark here, maybe I'm just hyping it up).

Proposal:

• Prior to Unrestricted Free Agency, the league will have a 15-day period where up to 4 RFAs per day will be be bid on auction style for 24 hours.
  
• After 24 hours, highest bid offer will have 24 hours to be matched by the tagging team.
• RFA's (up to 60 each year) will be divided equally across the 15-day period (this year had 36 RFAs, 2-3 per day).
• The order in which RFA are posted will be randomly generated and the full 15-day schedule will be posted in its entirety before RFA begins.

2022-2023 Offseason RFA Schedule Example:




Take this years offseason schedule, and modify it with an RFA bidding schedule as an example:

Sept. 25, 2022 - End of 2022 BKDB World Series
Oct. 5, 2022 - Trading Opens (at midnight ET of Sunday night, current free agents cannot be traded)
Oct. 14, 2022 - Start of the 2022 Amateur Draft (2023 Draft picks can be traded starting at the beginning of the draft)
Oct. 30, 2022 - Trading Closes
Nov. 30, 2022 - Roster Decisions Due/Rosters turned over to next season to reflect 2023 salaries.
Jan. 2-16, 2023 - Start of Restricted Free Agency
Jan. 18, 2023 - Start of Unrestricted Free Agency
Feb. 15, 2023 - Start of 2023 International Draft
Mar. 30, 2023 - Start of the 2023 BKDB Season

Pros: 

• More competitive bidding could result in more attainable FA for teams with more FA money available.
• More bidding might mean more FA money is used (just shy of 75% of the total used this year, $307 leftover)
• FA clock is faster and therefore more exciting (24 hours + 24 hours for decision)

Cons:

• Harder to retain RFA due to increased bidding activity
• More work to organize free agency each offseason (though maybe just initially).
• Another bad proposal by Will

[Orioles GM (Michael)]

I’ll pitch my two F Tags, no RFA tag idea again to just eliminate this problem altogether

[Astros GM (Will)]

Orioles GM (Michael) that sounds decidedly less chaotic and fun

[Pirates GM (Max)]

I voted for different idea. I like Will’s proposal, but I think we could just make it a lot simpler by letting all of the RFA be bid on a week before we start UFA. So RFA would have begun on Jan 2 this year, and UFA on Jan 9. And then don’t change the hours, still 48 to sign someone. Give teams 24 hours to match after signing

In addition to the normal boost that’s to be expected by having RFA separate from UFA, I think by knowing that UFA starts on a certain day and time, bidding for RFA will be more aggressive early on with managers wanting to know if they’ve signed a player or not before UFA begins

[Astros GM (Will)]

Jan 18, 2023 15:35:12 GMT -5 Pirates GM (Max) said:

I voted for different idea. I like Will’s proposal, but I think we could just make it a lot simpler by letting all of the RFA be bid on a week before we start UFA. So RFA would have begun on Jan 2 this year, and UFA on Jan 9. And then don’t change the hours, still 48 to sign someone. Give teams 24 hours to match after signing

In addition to the normal boost that’s to be expected by having RFA separate from UFA, I think by knowing that UFA starts on a certain day and time, bidding for RFA will be more aggressive early on with managers wanting to know if they’ve signed a player or not before UFA begins

I think this is the easiest to implement but I don't know how much different it would be to regular FA other than prioritizing RFA. I feel like there'd be less impact to cost suppression with 36 FA being bid on at once. Maybe cost suppression isn't a big deal like Travis mentioned in Discord (i.e. tagging teams should be able to retain their players). 

48hrs standing bid required to win could take more than a week so we'd still end up with overlap with UFA

[Pirates GM (Max)]

Jan 18, 2023 16:50:48 GMT -5 Astros GM (Will) said:

Jan 18, 2023 15:35:12 GMT -5 Pirates GM (Max) said:

I voted for different idea. I like Will’s proposal, but I think we could just make it a lot simpler by letting all of the RFA be bid on a week before we start UFA. So RFA would have begun on Jan 2 this year, and UFA on Jan 9. And then don’t change the hours, still 48 to sign someone. Give teams 24 hours to match after signing

48hrs standing bid required to win could take more than a week so we'd still end up with overlap with UFA

On this point specifically, I like to think that knowing UFA is starting on a certain day and time will force people to bid more aggressively early on instead of these very slow minimum upbid slogs that we usually get. At least, that’s how I’d approach it. Starting with a 25M/yr bid on a top SP and skipping the 24-36 hours of unrealistic bids we usually have

[Das (Former Giants GM)]

I voted similarly to Max, thinking that I would like to see all the RFA be able to be bid simultaneously. Breaking the Free Agents into smaller groups adds loopholes or opportunities for bidding to be altered.

[Cardinals GM (Nik)]

I didn’t see anything on when this would go into effect if passed. Given that teams went into this offseason and Free Agency with a strategy, would we wait to implement something until the 2024-2025 off season?

[Rockies GM (Alex)]

I like Max’s idea.

[Nationals GM (Tim)]

I like the idea of the 3 other guys who voted to not change anything about restricted tag players.