We are releasing some big updates to free agency and trade transactions designed to give you more flexibility in managing your team, and we are pretty excited about them. Included are two new options for leagues – discuss them with your leaguemates!!!!
We’re going to walk you through the following:
*How free agent signings will be processed.
*A comparison of differences in the old and new systems.
*A new league option for free agent bid timing.
*A new league option for unrestricted free agents (UFAs).
(If you prefer to hear us talk about this instead of have to use your reading skills, we got you covered – or continue reading….)
====Free Agent Signing Logic====
There are two core elements to how free agent bids will be processed, and all other changes come from them.
- All free agent bids within a league are processed from the highest to lowest salary. (If multiple bids are tied for the same amount, they’ll be processed in random order.)
- If you no longer have available cap space to sign a player when one of your bids is being processed, that bid will be cancelled and noted in your team news.
====Old vs. New Transaction Processes====
Cap Space for Pending Transactions
*Old: The total of all your pending transactions couldn’t exceed your available salary cap space.
*New: Each individual transaction cannot exceed your available cap space, but you can submit as many transactions as you like, even if the total exceeds your available cap space.
Example:
You have $10M salary cap space. Previously you could place bids equaling $10M, but now you place three bids on free agents with salaries of $8M, $5M, and $2M. The system processes the $8M bid first, you are the highest bidder, and you sign the player. Since the $5M bid now exceeds your remaining cap space ($2M), that bid will be cancelled, and the system will move on to your next bid, to see if you are the highest bidder for the third player…
Multiple Pending Transactions For the Same Player
*Old: Players could not be involved in multiple pending transactions at the same time.
*New: Players can now be listed for conditional release in multiple pending transactions, including free agent signings or trades.
Example: You list Player X to be conditionally released for a free agent bid, and also include that player in a trade offer. Your are the highest bidder for the free agent, Player X is released, and the pending trade offer will now be cancelled, and a message added to the team trade page.
Conditional Player Releases
*Old: Teams created “potential cap space” with conditional player releases, to make room for additional transactions that would otherwise exceed cap space.
*New: “Potential cap space” is no longer tracked—each bid is validated on its own, and conditional releases should be included directly within the relevant free agent bid.
Roster Minimums
*Old: Free agent bids were disallowed if they would drop your team below roster minimums.
*New: Any time a transaction drops your team below roster requirement limits, you will automatically sign a scrub player to fill the empty roster slot.
====New League Options for Free Agent Bid Timing====
Leagues have a new option to determining when free agents will make signing decisions.
*Random Sign Dates – this is the current system, where players sign between 12 and 24 hours from their oldest offer.
*(NEW) Sign Every Day at ??:00 – Signing time is not impacted by when bids are received. Instead, players will sign each day at a specific time designated by the league (default Noon EST). To prevent quick sign and drops, any player dropped within 12 hours of the next signing date will wait until the following signing date before making a decision.
*(NEW) Sign Every X or X/2 Sims – Signing time is not impacted by when bids are received. Players will sign every X or X/2 days, where X equals the sim rate of the league. To prevent quick sign and drops, any player dropped within X/2 days (~12 hours) of the signing date, will wait until the following signing date before making a decision.
A player’s signing date will be visible in the list of pending bids as well as on their player card, to let you know when to expect a decision.
Example:
You place free agent bids at 11:30AM in a league with the “Sign Every Day” option set at Noon EST. Most players make their signing decisions a half-hour later, but one of the players you bid on was just dropped to free agency at 4AM. That player will not make a signing decision until Noon the following day.
Example:
You place free agent bids at 1PM in a league where players sign every 8 sims, and the next sign date for the league is slated for 6PM. Most players make their signing decisions at 6, but one of the players you bid on was just dropped to free agency at Noon. That player won’t make a signing decision until 6PM the following day – this prevents any rapid drop-and-sign tactics, and ensures that everyone has time to react to newly available free agents.
====New Option for Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs)====
Leagues can allow free agents to sign instantly without going through the bid process, after they’ve been in free agency for a specified length of time.
*This feature only applies during the regular season.
*Leagues can choose a period between 8 and 90 sims that a player must remain in free agency before they become a UFA.
*UFAs will be designated a UFA tag on the free agent page, and with a ‘+’ instead of the ‘$’ of regular free agents.
*Any time changes are made to the league salary cap, all free agents are restricted again and the UFA timer resets for them – to avoid any race to sign.
Example: It is 4/8 and a player has been sitting in free agency since 2/28 (in a league with a 30-sim UFA rule). They automatically become a UFA and are eligible to sign instantly with any team, bypassing the bid process. You sign them instantly and bypass the bid process altogether.