So, you need to sign a player, and you're already familiar with
the basics of the OOTP player contract model? Let's do it! We'll talk about
contract extensions a little later on. In OOTP, any player without a contract is considered a
free agent and can be signed by any team in the league. (Even if you have disabled free agency in your league options, the term for a player without a contract is still 'free agent.') The easiest way to find a player to sign is by going to the
Free Agent page. Once you're there and you've found your target, right-click on the player's name and select
Offer Contract. Alternately, if you have his
Player Profile open, select
Offer Contract from the Action menu. This will bring you to the
Contract Offer page:
Building a Contract Offer
You offer a contract by defining your contract in the top right part of the page:
Contract offers consist of the following components:
| Option | Description |
| Contract Type | You can offer a major or minor league contract. Minor league contracts can only be offered in leagues that have minor leagues. |
| Total Number of Years | The total number of years in the contract, from 1-10. Minor league contracts do not specify a number of years. |
| Year-by-Year Salary | You can define the amount of salary in each year in the contract. Type the amount in the salary box, or use the +/- buttons to the right to quickly adjust the amount. Assign the salary to the first year before increasing the number of years. If you do so, then when you select the years, all years will have the same salary. Doing this makes it much easier to quickly build a multi-year deal. |
| No-Trade Clause | You can opt to include a no-trade clause. A no-trade clause has no dollar value, but players appreciate the security and are likely to accept less money when offered a no-trade clause. OOTP no-trade clauses all-or-nothing. You cannot have a clause that prevents trades only to some team or teams. Similarly, there is no way to get out of a no-trade clause once it has been included. A player cannot waive a no-trade clause. |
| Last Contract Year Optional? | You can choose to have an optional final year on any multi-year deal. There are three types of 'option years.' See Option Years below for more information. |
Incentives
In addition to the basic definition of your offer, you can also choose to include incentives in your offer:
There are two types of incentives available to hitters and pitchers:
| Option | Description |
| Hitter Incentives | Hitters can be given two contract incentives. - Minimum Plate Appearances: This incentive gives the player a bonus if he makes a certain number of plate appearances. GMs typically give this sort of bonus to players whose health is suspect.
- Outstanding Hitter Award: This incentive give the player a bonus if he wins the league's Outstanding Hitter Award in any season during the term of the contract.
|
| Pitcher Incentives | Pitchers can be given two contract incentives. - Minimum Innings: This incentive gives the player a bonus if he pitches a certain number of innings. GMs typically give this sort of bonus to players whose health is suspect.
Outstanding Pitcher Award: This incentive gives the player a bonus if he wins the league's Outstanding Pitcher Award in any season during the term of the contract.
|
Option Years
There are three types of
option years available in player contracts:
| Option | Description |
| Team Option | The team decides whether to honor the final year of the contract or make the player a free agent. |
| Player Option | The player decides whether to honor the final year of the contract or become a free agent. |
| Mutual Option | Both sides must agree on whether to honor the final year of the contract, or else the player becomes a free agent. |
After the last year of a contract preceding an option year, the general manager will receive a message concerning the option year.
- If the option year was a player option, the player will inform you whether he has accepted the option year, or whether he will become a free agent.
- If the option was a team option, the team will be asked if it wants to accept the option year. You respond using the Respond to Message action menu at the bottom of the Manager News page.
- Mutual options are a combination of the previous two options. If the player refuses the option, you will receive the refusal message. If the player accepts, you will receive a message like the one described above. You will then need to decide how to respond, just as if it were a team option.
Summary
The bottom right of the screen includes a summary of your contract offer:
The summary begins with a suggestion for what the player is looking for in a contract. It's possible that the player would accept less, or that you could offer the indicated amount and get outbid by another team. It's also possible that the numbers will change over time. As you work on your offer in the top half of the screen, a text description of your offer will be automatically updated at the bottom of the page.
Action Buttons
There are three action buttons at the bottom of the contract offer page:
| Option | Description |
| Submit Offer | Submits the offer to the player as currently configured. |
| Meet Demand | Automatically configures your offer in the top half of the screen in a way that will match what the player is currently demanding. You can then edit the offer further if you wish. |
| Go to Player Profile | Opens the Player Profile. |
Signing Extensions
You can attempt to extend the contracts of players already under contract, to avoid losing them to free agency. Most players prefer to negotiate extensions only in the final year of their current contracts. However, this is not necessarily always the case. To offer an extension to a player currently under contract, open his
Player Profile and select
Offer Extension from the Action menu. Alternatively, right-click on the player's name and select
Offer Extension from the right-click menu.
Apart from the different action name, the process for offering an extension is identical to offering a free agent contract. When offering an extension, the player's current contract is visible in the lower left of the Contract Offer page:
Contract extensions take effect when the current contract expires, not on the day on which an extension is signed.
Submitting Your Offer
Once you have constructed your offer, click the
Submit Offer button, and read on to learn what happens after the contract offer!