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I would agree that this seems to be a problem. I am also noticing a related issue that bears looking into.
Once the regular season starts, unsigned free agents who have been asking for multi-year contracts reduce their demands to just one year. They also show a willingness to sign for significantly less. This part is not the problem. It's entirely reasonable that a player would lessen his demands if still unsigned after the start of the season on the premise that it's better to make some money than no money at all.
What is not reasonable is the degree to which the player will lower his demands, and more importantly the player's willingness to accept a multi-year contract in conjunction with those drastically lowered demands.
For example, I'm seeing instances where a player who was asking for a 5 year/$50M contract in the offseason drops his demands to 1 year/$8M once the regular season starts. Completely reasonable. But then I'm seeing that same player willing to accept a yearly salary at or near league minimum (let's say $1M for the sake of this example). What's worse, the player will gladly accept this salary over multiple years. So the same player who in March was asking for a 5 year/$50M contract can be signed to a 5 year/$5M contract just a month later.
It's one thing to agree that a player would lower his demands to earn a paycheck. However, it's extraordinarily unlikely that a player asking for an 8-digit yearly salary would accept a near-league minimum contract under any circumstance. Even if you did find a player that incredibly desperate for some scratch, it's beyond imagination that he would sign away additional years of his career at a similarly discounted rate. Realistically he would take his lumps on a reduced 1 year contract, hit the free agent market again at the end of the season and hope that his performance rehabilitated his value.
Is anyone else seeing this kind of behavior? If so, please speak up. The more voices that chime in, the more likely it will be addressed in the final patch.
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