General Description - From this page you may negotiate long-term contracts with your own players. You may only reach this page by clicking 'Negotiate Long-Term' on the Arbitration Report page before an arbitration hearing, or from the Free-Agent Report page if the player is in the last year of his contract with your team.

Player Information - The top half of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, player profile and all of his status info.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll +/- any transferred cash from trades. The amount that you may allocate to future seasons is reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future. You may not allocate more than this payroll budget for any season.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Used - This illustrates the amount that you currently have tied up in signed player contracts for that season. For instance, if you have $8,000,000 in season 4, you have eight million dollars worth of players under contract with your franchise during Season 4 (via multi-year deals). These numbers are updated as players are signed.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Offered - This represents the money you currently have tied up in outstanding offers. This amount plus the payroll allocated cannot exceed the player payroll budget, so be wise in your offers. If a signing would put your franchise over your budget, you will not be able to make the offer to the player.

Contract Demands - These are the contract demands of the player and are a good starting point for negotiation. Generally, players will sign for their demands, but the free agent market will dictate the player's true worth.

Agent - At this time the agent does not play a significant role in negotiations.

Type - Players can either sign big league, Minor League, Minor League with Spring Training Invitation or Invitation only contracts. Most players will demand Major or Minor League contracts depending on experience.

Years - Players will demand between 1-5 years on their contracts. Most players who demand longer contracts will also ask for No-Trade Clauses or Player options. This will be represented in the Player Comments section.

Total Amount - This is the amount that the player would like to earn from the contract. It is up to the user to determine how to allocate this money over the duration of the contract.

Notes - These are general special notes by the player. They will include discussions on such topics as playing time, team success, contract type, No Trade Clauses and Last Season Options.

Contract Offer - After finalizing an offer in this box, please click 'Submit Offer.' After your offer is submitted, it will be reviewed and responded to by the player immediately. To go back to the previous page, please click 'Return.'

Type - Players can either sign big league, Minor League, Minor League with Spring Training Invitation or Invitation only contracts. A player signed to a big league contract must be placed on the 40-man roster. To do so, please go to the Edit Rosters page and Assign him to the Majors or AAA if he has available options. If the 40-man roster is full, you must release a player or designate a player for assignment from the list. Minor League contracts with invitations will allow a player to be immediately placed on the Spring Training Squad. The player must be assigned a level within ten days of the contract signing. Spring Training invitees will immediately be placed on the Spring Training Squad and must either be assigned to a level at the minimum salary within ten days of the end of spring training or released.

Bonus - Bonuses are guaranteed money that comes out of the future season player payroll upon signing. For instance, if you're in season 1 and you offer a 3-year contract extension including a bonus of $2M, it will come out of the Season 2 Player Payroll. Bonuses cannot be transferred through trades or waiver moves. Bonuses are limited to $10 million.

Season - This is the actual season salary that you would like to offer the player. Season 1 refers to the first season in which the player is not already under contract with your franchise. So, if the player is currently arbitration eligible and has not gone through an arbitration hearing, season 1 means this current season. If the player is in the final year of his contract with your team and will soon become a free agent, season 1 indicates the next Hardball Dynasty season. In a two-year contract, neither season can comprise more than 60% of the total value of the contract. In a three-year contract, no season can comprise more than 40% of the total value of the contract. In a four-year contract, no season can comprise more than 30% of the total value of the contract. In a five-year contract, no season can comprise more than 25% or less than 10% of the total value of the contract. There is a maximum allowable offer of $20 million for any season. The minimum for any season is the minimum annual salary at that level. For the big leagues, this is 325K. To change the offer for any season, please click in the box next to the season and enter an integer value. For a three-year contract, you must enter in values for the first three seasons, but you may leave seasons 4 and 5 blank. The total value of the contract will appear at the bottom of the page.

Last Season Option - This refers to the option that a player and/or organization has to release the player from his contract at the beginning of his last season under contract. Player Options come into play when a player feels he has outplayed his contract and would like test the free-agent waters. Players do not have to invoke their options. Team options allow users to buyout and release a player. These also do not have to be used. Mutual Option contracts give the opportunity to both the player and franchise to end the contract before its last season. If you sign a player to a Team or Mutual option and decide to release him at the beginning of his last contract year, you must buy the player out for 25% his agreed upon salary for that season. Players with Last Season Options will not be reflected in the Free Agent Report until the contract has ended or been terminated.

No Trade Clause - Players who want to stay with a franchise for the long-term may request a No Trade Clause. These players may still be traded, but the player will have to waive his No Trade Clause to do so.

In-season Free-Agents - Free-agents signed after the regular season has already started prorate their demands. Once signed, the listed contract will continue to be their full-season amount demanded, but your franchise is only responsible for paying the prorated amount. For instance, a player may be asking for $1M after your franchise has played 81 big league games. After he signs for $1M, his listed contract will be $2M, but you will only be paying him $1M. The World Office Franchise Payroll Analysis page clearly outlines how much your franchise is responsible for all player contracts.

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