Restricted Free Agents

[Eric (Guidopolis)]

You can tag two people on your team each year with expiring contracts as "Restricted Free Agents".  Any team that attempts to sign a RFA for an AAV over $6M/yr will forfeit a draft pick (what round is defined below) unless the team that controls the RFA decides to match proposed deal.

Restricted Free Agents are players who will be bid on during the Offseason during normal Free Agency.  During the offseason, owners will have the oportunity to tag 2 players on their team as "RFA's".  Dates for this will be announced every off season based on a consensus from the mod team.

During Free Agency, any player that is RFA tagged can be bid upon.  Bidding will progress until it ends naturally (as defined in the Free Agents bidding process).

At that point based on the chart below. The team controlling the RFA will receive a draft pick from bidding team to make up for losing the free agent unless the controlling team decides to match the proposed deal.

If the highest bid is over $20M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 1st round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team
If the highest bid is between$10M-$19.9M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 2nd round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team
If the highest bid is between $6M - $9,9M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 3rd round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team

A team must have a draft pick that corresponds to the draft pick they are giving. If someone does not have a first round pick, they can not bid over 20 million dollars. If they do their bid will be deemed as invalid, and the next highest bid would win. Anything less than 6m does not have to give any pick.

[kickthepony (Isotopes)]

Just wondering, what about international players in the minors? If their contracts run out while their in the minors do we have to RFA them?

[Eric (Guidopolis)]

Their contract is for the majors only so it won't go through until they make it to the majors.

[tummysticks17 (Scrubs)]

So just out of curiosity. What happens if I RFA a player, and no one bids on him?

[Eric (Guidopolis)]

Well then I'm going to say that we should give qualifying offers then everyone can bid after that l. That's a pretty good question lol

[Deleted]

Jun 7, 2016 18:13:37 GMT -5 Eric (Guidopolis) said:

Well then I'm going to say that we should give qualifying offers then everyone can bid after that l. That's a pretty good question lol

So the RFA comes with a bid on the player?  Is that bid a set amount (similar to the MLB QO system which has the QO valued at the average of the top 125 salaries (determined by AAV))?

[Deleted]

wouldn't he just fall under free agency rules and you determine what the contract structure you want would be?
3yr 3 mil type thing?

but to be fair its pretty unlikely that no one would bid on a rfa guy since he clearly holds value and someone is bound to take a stab at him

[Eric (Guidopolis)]

I think because we don't have anything set up in the rules for this, it will be something that is voted on at the winter meetings that takes place just before the RFA. We will have a vote on what is going to be the more fair way. I would more lean towards Sluggers way but Cubs way is a possibility too.

[Deleted]

We should do this by BP instead of $/yr. So like [6-10) BP is a 3rd round pick. [10-20) BP is a 2nd round pick, and [20+ is a 1st round pick. It seems more logical with the bidding process.

[kickthepony (Isotopes)]

Clarification to the RFA status of trades, since it's been brought up again. You can RFA a player you traded for, as was addressed last year. You can't RFA a player who was signed to a one year deal. I will update the original post when I get home since I'm on mobile

[Deleted]

Updated Rule: RFA's are allowed after 1 year FULL control by the same team. Player must be signed by opening day to be eligible and can't be traded midseason during the final year of their contract.

Old Rule Text:

You can tag two people on your team each year with expiring contracts as "Restricted Free Agents"

Restricted Free Agents are players who will be bid on during the Offseason at a time to be determined. The team that owns the restricted free agents will still have control of the players and must have had control of free agents for more than one year. They will not be place into free agency til later.


All of the RFAs from the league will be grouped together based on judgment on how good the players are. Each week will feature a group of players to be bid on. The bids will be worked like the free agency bids. Any team that has qualifying draft picks can bid on the players. When 24 hours has gone by with no new bids, the player with the highest bid has a chance to get the player. I say has a chance because at this time the team that placed the RFA tag on the player can accept the new bid as the players new contract.

Example: Albert Pujols has an RFA tag placed on him by Team 1. He is placed in the first group of RFAs. Team 2 has bid and won Pujols at 3 years 24 mil per year. Team 1 now has the ability to accept that new contract in which Team 2 receives nothing. If Team 1 decides they are not going to accept the new contract then Team 2 wins the player at 3 years 24 million per year.

At that point based on the chart below. Team 1 will receive a draft pick from team 2 to make up for losing the free agent.

If the highest bid is over $20M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 1st round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team
If the highest bid is between$10M-$19.9M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 2nd round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team
If the highest bid is between $6M - $9,9M/yr, the winning team will forfeit their 3rd round pick in the Minor League Draft as compensation to the tagging team

A team must have a draft pick that corresponds to the draft pick they are giving. If someone does not have a first round pick, they can not bid over 20 million dollars. If they do their bid will be deemed as invalid, and the next highest bid would win. Anything less than 6m does not have to give any pick.

International players in the minors don't have to be tagged their contract won't run out until they make it to the majors.

There will be multiple rounds of bidding per group. This is in the hope that people really look into home grown talent. And also compensating some teams who decided to go through an overhaul.