International Free Agent Posting

[Orioles GM (Michael)]

For players who are subject to international signing bonus pool, who are going to be bid on and be signed to several-year contracts in our league, what do y'all think of making it similar to bidding, where teams bid the equivalent of a "posting fee" by using one year's cap space, and then allow the prospect to become a normal prospect like anyone else? The cap would be subtracted similar to how cap coverage is, but the player would be listed as $300k salary. So any bid would effectively be that bid + $300k, though that wouldn't be included in how we post bids.

While I obviously don't have any of these kinds of prospects, it seems to be counter-productive to sign players like a Victor Victor Mesa to 5-year deals, since the first 1-4 years are spent in the minors, then they become free agents after maybe 1-2 seasons. It limits the prospect's trade value (since who wants to acquire a one-year prospect?) and also just seems impractical. We could either include all J2 types and just remove them from the MiLB draft altogether, or just include the ones we'd otherwise exempt from the MiLB draft. I'm personally fine with either approach.

This could also help dial back the one + one megabids on free agents, since rebuilding clubs will have incentive to spend big on the Mesa-types (rather than add a player they'll flip for someone like Mesa), which will at least take some cap space out of play when it comes to bidding on MLB stars. I know this might be last minute to implement this year, but if we could get enough discussion by Tuesday, could still put it into play for this free agency period.

[Marlins GM (Travis)]

I'm confused. I feel like this incentivizes more big bids? Cause then if I sign a guy for $50mil during a rebuilding year, doesn't matter cause he'll only be 300k next season and I get all that money back? At least that's how I read what you wrote.

[Orioles GM (Michael)]

Dec 29, 2018 15:24:08 GMT -5 Marlins GM (Travis) said:

I'm confused. I feel like this incentivizes more big bids? Cause then if I sign a guy for $50mil during a rebuilding year, doesn't matter cause he'll only be 300k next season and I get all that money back? At least that's how I read what you wrote.

It would more specifically prevent rebuilding teams from shelling out 1+1 deals, since each winter they'll be putting money towards bidding on that year's crop of international prospects. So while a team does recoup their money, the thought is they'd spend it on prospects again the next winter (or start bidding normally on MLB guys since they're trying to compete, rather than putting an albatross bid on a guy they're going to flip).

[Dodgers GM (Scott)]

I do like this idea. Because guys like Ohtahni in reality have years of cheap team control but already he's getting $20M for 4 years.

But I would propose that we tack a percentage of that first year onto the second year. Maybe like 15% or so. So let's say I bid $60M on Victor Victor Mesa Jr. I would spend the $60M the first year. And the next season I would have another $9M cap hit on him and then his salary would be just $0.3M then advance as normal prospects. And theoretically the next off-season I would have just $51M available.

This is just an idea to keep teams from year after year spending their entire cap out bidding everyone on international free agents. But could potentially open free agency as to more cap stressed teams as well with some of the rebuilding cap being shifted towards the international market.

Also the percentage was off the top of my had so if people like the concept it could be better adjusted.

[Angels GM (Derrick)]

Keep in mind that alot of these IFA players that get bid are older and have more overall baseball experience as compared to their J2 counterparts or amateur draftees. In theory making them closer to the majors. That was the initial reasoning for the separation back years ago when it was initially implemented.

[Orioles GM (Michael)]

Dec 29, 2018 19:34:10 GMT -5 Angels GM (Derrick) said:

Keep in mind that alot of these IFA players that get bid are older and have more overall baseball experience as compared to their J2 counterparts or amateur draftees. In theory making them closer to the majors. That was the initial reasoning for the separation back years ago when it was initially implemented.

Yeah upon further thought (and discussion with guys), clarified that I'm talking about guys that are subject to the signing pool, since those guys (even closer-to-majors ones) still start as prospects. This way the older guys still get left to normal contracts.

[Rockies GM (Alex)]

I think this is a great idea. This will not be implemented this season, sorry guys, as we're two days away from free agency. However, I think this could work going forward. We'd have teams bid from their available cap space, and the amount would be charged in the Cash Adjustments at the bottom of the spreadsheets for one season. The player (Victor Victor, Ohtani, Luis Robert) would then become prospects at $300k, and the team would be just be charged a one year fee. If we want to add a second year fee on it... such as like 100% the first year, 20% the second year, that could work. Example:

D'backs bid $50m on Victor Victor Mesa. It wins the bid. The D'backs have $50m charged to their cash adjustment for 2019, much like if you covered salary on a trade, and then get another $5m (10%) or $7.5m (15%) or $10m (20%), depending on what we add for the second year, to their cash adjustment for 2020. Victor Victor Mesa would then get a contract of $300k and be a regular prospect.

Only players that are able to be signed by MLB's bonus pool would be eligible for this. Players that are signed like regular free agents in MLB would be regular free agents here.

Thoughts?

[Nationals GM (Tim)]

So what happens if they accrue playing time eligibility ? Like Ohtani. Would he start out at year 1 of 7 after the initial year even tho he’s accrued a season worth of playing time ?

[Astros GM (Will)]

What about older players like Yuli Gurriel, Masahiro tanaka, Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Abreu?

I think we can effectively accomplish the same idea by increasing the pro years of experience requirement to 6 or 7 years, or increasing the age requirement to 24 or 25 years. This makes a few MiLB picks more valuable and is less drastic of a change.

[Rockies GM (Alex)]

Ohtani would start out at 1 of 7, just like any prospect. This year he'd be entering 2 of 7. We draft before a player plays in the MLB... so he'd never already have service time once he was drafted.

As far as Yuli Gurriel, Jose Abreu... weren't they treated as regular free agents for the MLB? I just feel like years and experience is hard to track. If we just do, was the player eligible for the bonus pool in the MLB? If yes, then he's in the MiLB Draft. If not, he's just a regular free agent.

[Astros GM (Will)]

The point is how to distinguish between the groups, we still have two different types of free agents, maybe 3 if we include J2