BRING BACK Front/Back-Loaded Contracts & Player/Team Options
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Wrote this to the MLBTS customer service email and they pointed me back to the forum, so copy/pasting here for visibility... I'm sure many of you have had the same complaint, but I want to make sure this is emphasized as it's completely taken me out of buying/playing the game.
Hey there. I am a longtime player of MLB The Show's Franchise Mode. I've been playing The Show since its inception, MVP baseball before that, and Triple Play before that. For years, The Show (along with maybe Madden) was the only game I would even own, as Franchise Mode would keep me entertained year round. Along the way, I've adapted to all of the changes to drafting, scouting, free agency, et al - some for the better, some less so - and have always kept notes on things that could be improved (often things like contract issues that become more glaring in future seasons, etc)... but over the past few years there have been a number of things that have made Franchise Mode unplayable for me, led by the change in last year's game to no longer allow front-loaded or back-loaded contracts and evenly spread the AAV across the full years of a deal. While imperfect in the past (evenly spread around the median as opposed to mirroring pre-arb/arb year values in the context of an extension) the fact that contracts are now equal AAV across the full scope of the deal is honestly so absurd it makes the game unplayable. I literally bought MLBTS25 last year and played it for a total of maybe an hour before putting it away for good and have not picked up this year's edition because I see this is still the case.
I have a bunch more notes/ideas I would be happy to share, but this detail is absolutely critical. As a fan of a small market team, it's absolutely insane to sign a pre-arb player to a long-term extension knowing you'd immediately be on the hook for their full AAV as opposed to ~league minimum (or perhaps a slight raise) with escalators as you hit arbitration years and beyond into FA years. I can't remember if you allow options (I'm pretty sure those were taken away too) but only having one year of "player/mutual/team" options was already limiting as many deals have multiple option years at the end, but to take that away altogether?? Again... it just makes the game unplayable. Hoping this can be adjusted for 27 and beyond because it's such a bummer to no longer be able to play what was once my favorite game.
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I agree - I miss this feature that was removed. The game is fair too along to not have such a simple feature that has been in games for years and years. I know they removed it with the new FA system and that was "fine" for year one, but to not add it back in this year is just sad.
Here's an idea but if having it in the new FA system was the problem then remove it for FA contracts but add it in for extensions. Yes, teams will back/frontload FA contracts but they 100% do it for extensions (thinking pre-FA eligible extensions mostly here so sub 6 years of service time)
