I’ve tried hard
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I’ve really tried hard to get into Franchise with this years game. I just find myself deleting one after another. I am a die hard Rays fan and I play with them in Franchise. The two things that completely turn me off about this specific game:
-No contract options or back and front loading contracts. This is what small market teams do to succeed and helps with the budget they have. Mind blowing it’s not in the game
-Arb deals are outrageously high and very unrealistic. Shane McClanahan did not pitch in 2024 or 2025. You play with him in 2026 and then he gets 23 million in Arb for 2027. Pitchers with overalls of 72-78 getting 12mil or more in Arb. Impossible to have a decent team with a small budgetI’m almost thinking of going to buy The Show 24 again and have fun with it. It’s the last game that has the contract options and variety. Does anyone have feedback on 24s Franchise mode? I know trading was unrealistic in previous games but I feel like you can make ground rules for yourself to avoid that.
Any feedback would br appreciated

I know 23 and 25 were not great as well but I’m blanking on 24 -
@AndyWilk09_PSN I’ve only done and completed 2 it’s just to much this year even for a hardcore baseball fan like myself. I didn’t a Rockies one and a redsox one since the Sox are my favourite team and the Rockies are the Rockies.
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So, I don't know how comfortable you are with messing with the game.
If you are dead set against messing with anything ...
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Game your budgets. Trade for junk guys with very high expiring contracts. It will maximize your usage of your next year's budget.
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Trade for younger guys who are 'okay' and don't have high potential. Potential is what kills you for contracts. Seriously. A guy with a 90 potential will want $30M. An 80 potential will only want $12M. Don't be afraid to use the edit tool to see exactly what their potential is. An 89 and an 80 are both 'B', but the contract cost is vastly different.
Now, this falls under the absolute 'cheating' area ...
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Change the players' potential to something in the high 70s. Sign them to long term cheap deals, then change them back to what they were.
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Sign young players to really cheap long-term deals and they edit the heck out of them.
I play my franchises with all 30 teams. I like to keep things 'even'. I have to do all kinds of tricks to keep players on teams. If I don't mess with rosters, you end up with everyone on the free agent market and good players retiring early because teams just don't have the payroll to sign them. So, depending on your taste, you may have to fudge ... just a bit.

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I wish you could bring up your RTTS player in franchise mode