2020 Season Options
Jul 7, 2020 11:22:26 GMT -5
Post by Trey - Astros GM on Jul 7, 2020 11:22:26 GMT -5
Lots going in chat so figured it would make sense to lay out a proposal and have the conversation here.
Here's my proposal:
1. Contracts: push all contracts one year such that both 2020-2021 are considered one single year. The 2021+ salaries push each one year to 2022+. There will be no RFA/F-tag stuff pre-season 2021, only UFA. Current minors contract players stay minors contract until 2022.
2. Give GM option to let any specific (currently rostered) player expire / burn down off 2020 year: a) this will allow those that front loaded contracts to let that year burn off and b) it should be an option for those guys that you want to let go for 2021 anyway. For single year contracts, think of it like a free drop for 2021. Also, if you drop someone during 2020 with a long-term contract, we'll need to make it so you cannot pay off the entire thing in 2020 and be free of it in 2021. Future waiver payoffs would apply for both 2020/2021 (exclude the 2020 waiver in 2021 to be fair). We'll need a thread for the initial announcements of who to let burn off and who to rollover. We'll also need to pay close attention to waivers since it can get complicated. I volunteer to be the watchdog on these two things - announcement of who to let burn off or rollover and waiver penalty application to 2020 and 2021.
3. FA adds: the simplest way would be to consider 2020-21 one single year for contract purposes and any adds during the season cannot be cut out of 2021 without penalty.
4. 2020 Season play: play 4 matchups each week - 2 in conference and 2 out. Over 6 weeks, you'll play each divisional opponent 3 times (12 matchups) and you'd play 12 of the other 15 teams once each. Two other options: i) same division games (3vs each) but have those other 12 matchups be vs. non-division league opponents x2 each, leaving 2 inter-league matchups or ii) face each division opponent and non-division league opponent twice (18 matchups) leaving 6 inter-league matchups. I volunteer to figure out the schedule once settled.
5. Playoffs start week 7 same as we've always done. 4 division winners plus the 2 next best records from each league (NL/AL). The only thing that could be annoying here is that the championship week might get jacked up by stars sitting out more frequently the last week if playoffs are locked up. I think this is less likely to be a big deal than full years given the season is so short and playoff races should be intact into that last week. Also, we might expect any given week to be messed up by virus contraction or precautions, so this may be the norm.
6. We already have unlimited IL slots - and will be able to utilize them for the covid-19 IL. Players on IL don't count toward your 30MLB contract player limit and you can add FA to replace them. However, when they come back, you have to make room for them, as usual.
7. Players opting out: player's salary does not count toward 2020 cap space and may be placed in IL all year (not count toward 30 man MLB roster). GM has the option to waive single year contract players that opt out without penalty. Multi-year contract players must pay waiver penalty on future years - and if paying future waiver penalties, these would apply in 2021 only.
Here's my proposal:
1. Contracts: push all contracts one year such that both 2020-2021 are considered one single year. The 2021+ salaries push each one year to 2022+. There will be no RFA/F-tag stuff pre-season 2021, only UFA. Current minors contract players stay minors contract until 2022.
2. Give GM option to let any specific (currently rostered) player expire / burn down off 2020 year: a) this will allow those that front loaded contracts to let that year burn off and b) it should be an option for those guys that you want to let go for 2021 anyway. For single year contracts, think of it like a free drop for 2021. Also, if you drop someone during 2020 with a long-term contract, we'll need to make it so you cannot pay off the entire thing in 2020 and be free of it in 2021. Future waiver payoffs would apply for both 2020/2021 (exclude the 2020 waiver in 2021 to be fair). We'll need a thread for the initial announcements of who to let burn off and who to rollover. We'll also need to pay close attention to waivers since it can get complicated. I volunteer to be the watchdog on these two things - announcement of who to let burn off or rollover and waiver penalty application to 2020 and 2021.
3. FA adds: the simplest way would be to consider 2020-21 one single year for contract purposes and any adds during the season cannot be cut out of 2021 without penalty.
4. 2020 Season play: play 4 matchups each week - 2 in conference and 2 out. Over 6 weeks, you'll play each divisional opponent 3 times (12 matchups) and you'd play 12 of the other 15 teams once each. Two other options: i) same division games (3vs each) but have those other 12 matchups be vs. non-division league opponents x2 each, leaving 2 inter-league matchups or ii) face each division opponent and non-division league opponent twice (18 matchups) leaving 6 inter-league matchups. I volunteer to figure out the schedule once settled.
5. Playoffs start week 7 same as we've always done. 4 division winners plus the 2 next best records from each league (NL/AL). The only thing that could be annoying here is that the championship week might get jacked up by stars sitting out more frequently the last week if playoffs are locked up. I think this is less likely to be a big deal than full years given the season is so short and playoff races should be intact into that last week. Also, we might expect any given week to be messed up by virus contraction or precautions, so this may be the norm.
6. We already have unlimited IL slots - and will be able to utilize them for the covid-19 IL. Players on IL don't count toward your 30MLB contract player limit and you can add FA to replace them. However, when they come back, you have to make room for them, as usual.
7. Players opting out: player's salary does not count toward 2020 cap space and may be placed in IL all year (not count toward 30 man MLB roster). GM has the option to waive single year contract players that opt out without penalty. Multi-year contract players must pay waiver penalty on future years - and if paying future waiver penalties, these would apply in 2021 only.
