Re-Signing one of your players BEFORE free agency Perhaps the most controversial idea, probably because it has the potential to be confusing. The goal here is to give teams an ability to retain a free agent by re-signing them before free agency starts. But there is a risk as you are exposing the player to the free agent market if an opposing team places a silent bid above the original team’s bid (which will be public). The details… A GM would have the ability to possibly re-sign ONE of their free agents. Whoever they choose is up to them. There will be a 24 hour process whereby a GM lists ONE free agent from their team in a thread and a $ amount for the bid (I want GM’s to PM me their re-sign player, not post in thread, I will post the list at the start of the 24 hour process. This way, teams don’t have an advantage for not posting their player until the end). The 31 remaining teams will then have 24 hours to react by PMing me a silent bid (normal free agency rules apply with respect to a bid amount being beaten and you must be under the cap of course). If nobody places a higher bid than the original team, that player is re-signed at the amount listed. If another team places a higher bid than the original team, if it’s the HIGHEST bid, that bid remains on the player at the start of free agency. From there, normal free agency rules apply. NOTE: The team with the highest bid at the start of free agency still has the maximum amount of bids available for free agency. In other words, it doesn’t count against them (so yes, if there are five bids maximum, a team could possibly have SIX if they are leading a bid on a player). Since the voting is silent (where I’m getting PM’s) teams will be kept in the dark with respect to who has the highest bid until the 24 hour process is over. Another NOTE: A re-signed player CANNOT be traded later. Before you vote, consider the strategy involved in who you designate for re-sign. This player would not be available for any type of franchise or tender offer. The player could be either a UFA or RFA. Also, you can choose NOT to expose any of your players to this re-sign process. Although, I would think you’ll want to do this, if for no other reason than to re-sign a “lesser” free agent that you want to keep. As always, any questions ask away here before voting
I don't think the "must have enough cap space to bid on these players" is fair. That removes half the GMs simply b/c of the team they inherited, and they'd have to prematurely cut players in order to make a bid. Meanwhile, teams comfortably under the cap can relax and hold off on roster decisions for a while and give some trades a chance to play out. We should be allowed to bid now and do our trimming later.
How is it any different then in normal free agency where you must be below the cap? EDIT: Assuming the re-sign period is just prior to the start of free agency. If the re-sign period is like in the next few days then I could see the issue.
wat? this process will take place shortly before FA starts. so half the teams are going to be that close to the cap limit then? I don't think so.