New Rule Proposal (need league input/vote):
Gents, we are considering allowing teams to sign existing free agents to 1-year deals mid-season (somewhere between game 82 and 100). The auction would last one week, and teams can nominate and bid on players as per the normal FA rules. Players will be won and purchased at face value. No HTDs. No 1-year contract mark-ups. Teams may add as many of these in-seasons free agents as necessary, remaining under the 40-man cap. This thread will be open for discussion for 5 days, then I will add a poll for you vote for or against.”
Kyle
How does the salary cap fit into this?
It seems fine to me as long as teams are staying under the cap.
You'd have to stay under the cap even with in-season FA. So if you have less than $250,000 remaining, you wouldn't be able to take part.
I do understand the idea behind this, but personally think that instead of having an auction, teams can just take players from this free agency pool anytime they have another player run out of playing time. There is always this pool of fungible talent available at the end of the off-season free agency, just like the pool of triple A talent available to all teams in major league baseball. Maybe make the signing cost minimal ($250K), but if a team has a player run out of playing time, they can pick up one of these players when they need them. The 40 man roster limit still applies. For me, an auction in the middle of the season seems a bit much. I might not need those players then (might run out sooner, or near the end of the season more likely), so I don't like that part of the timing. Just my two cents.
What Jason said...
I agree with the past two statements.
I also like what Jason said.
OK all, this rule has been in discussion mode for 8 days. I'm going to do a poll based on Jason's comments and the original proposed idea of doing a one-week auction. I think the one-week auction idea was proposed to have the added effect of promoting more league-wide activity in the middle of the season, so I'm going to put both options on the poll.