Contracts (including extensions, releases, restructures and prospect contracts)

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Contracts
Contracts are always listed in terms of flat salary and the last season of the contract. We only deal in increments of $100,000, so any other values will always round up (so $125K would round to $200K for example). For example, $10m (2024) is a contract the pays $10m each season through the 2024 season.

Years & Values
Max extension is a 5-year deal. There are limits based on the $ value of the contract.

Contract Limits
Salary range (per year), Maximum Years
$1m or less = 2 years
$1.1m to $4.9m = 3 years
$5m to $9.9m, 4 years
$10m+, 5 years (the overall limit)

Prospect contracts
A player can be signed to a prospect contract as long as they have under 50 innings pitched or 150 at bats in the majors. After that time they are no longer eligible to be kept in the minors and must be promoted immediately or dropped. Any team keeping ineligible players on their minors roster will have an illegal roster and will not accumulate stats until corrected, at the commissioners discretion.

These contracts don't count against the cap as long as the player remains in your minors. Once called up or once passing the innings/ABs threshold, they will count against the cap.

Once a prospect has accumulated 50 innings pitched or 150 at bats, his service time clock will be started. For example, if this occurred in the 2022 season, the player would remain p-n/a for the remainder of the season before his contract was updated to p-2025. This means that he is under control for 3 more seasons (2023-2025) at a 500k salary. Prospects can be extended at any time following the extensions guidelines for Prospect contracts.

A player on a prospect contract may be cut at any time without penalty, although signing bonuses are fully guaranteed and stay with winning team for remainder of that year.

Releasing players
Any players can be released in season and carry cap hits of 90%/60%/30% for the entire fantasy season if dropped in season.

Contract Restructures
There are no contract restructures allowed since players can be bought out or not kept at end of the year.

Buyouts
Buyouts are allowed. With this you take the full cap hit of releasing a player all in the current season. To find the value of a buyout, you take the cap hits for dropping a player in season (90/60/30% of the contract), add them all up and multiply it by 1.25.

Example-
John Smith, $10.0m, 3 year length
To drop him in the current season, it would be cap hits of 9.0, 6.0, and 3.0m respectively. For a buyout, add those together for $18.0m and multiply by 1.25 for a total cap hit of 22.5m in the current season. This $22.5m cap hit would all apply to the 2018 cap. This is a steep penalty, but if the team has the cap room they can use it that year instead of potentially non-keeping the player and getting that cap hit applied.

Buyout deadline is also the trade deadline, which is 11:59 p.m. EST of the day before playoffs begin.

Contract extensions:
Players can only be extended in the final year of their contract. A player can be extended by finding their extension value using the ranking system in Hitter Rank and Pitcher Rank sections of the spreadsheet, which correspond to their Fantrax rankings. To check these values for the current season, go to the league page in fantrax, click on players, click where it says All Available Players and select ALL Players. Next, select either hitting or pitching based on the position of your player and find their rank in the order listed. For previous years, select that tab and select on the appropriate season.

Contract lengths and values are based on the contract ranges above. All extensions must be two years minimum however. For example, a contract of 1M per year can only be a 2-year deal. In order to give someone a 4-year deal or extension, it must average at least $5m per year. A 5-year deal has to equal $50m, or $10m per year.

Extensions must be at least 25 percent of their previous salary.
Example – Joe Schmoe, $13.0m 2024 has an extension value of $2.0m, then his salary must be at least 25% of $13.0m which equals $3.3m.

Rankings used for extensions vary based on when in the season you are extending them.
PRE & EARLY SEASON (Before April 30): previous two seasons
REGULAR SEASON, AFTER MAY 1ST: previous two seasons and current season
OFFSEASON: previous and current season

Example - 
For 2023 Season:
PRE & EARLY SEASON - PRE-APR 30 (2023): 2021, and 2022 rankings are used
REGULAR SEASON, AFTER MAY 1ST (2023): 2021, 2022, 2023 rankings are used
OFFSEASON (2023-24): 2022 and 2023 rankings are used

Prospect extensions:
Any player who is under a prospect contract may be signed to a regular contract extension, but they may also be signed to a prospect extension. This involves buying out cost-controlled years if you think someone may hold an even higher value in the future.
Such an extension is a 3-year deal where the annual salary is a percentage of their market value. The annual salary must be no less than $4m in any year. To receive the prospect extension discount, the player must be re-signed before the trade deadline of the final year of their current deal. If giving a prospect extension, it begins the next season, not at the end of the prospect contract.
Example -
Joe Schmoe was great as a rookie, entering his rookie season as p-2026 (500k contract through 2026). If his extension value in current season is, say, $20m per year, you can extend him then at 50% of that value. To do it early, in this example the 2024 season, you get a larger discount, but you're wiping out the cost-controlled years you get with a base prospect contract. This is a risk you take of how good a player is/may become.
For the 2024 season, the following percentages would be used per prospect status.
2024- 75%
2025 - 60%
2026 - 50%
n/a - 40%

Variable contracts:
Variable contracts are allowed for free agents and extensions. The salary must remain within 25% of the annual amount.
Example - Miguel Cabrera is signed to a 50m contract. This averages out to 5 years for $10.0m per year. 25% means the lowest per year it can go is $7.5m and highest is $12.5m. An example here would be backloading the deal as follows: $7.5m, $7.5, $10.0, $12.5, $12.5m, which still equals $10m annually on average.

Extension values
Hitters:
Will be ranked 1-160 based on contract values. Max value for #1 will be $28 million. Minimum extension value is $2m.

Pitchers:
Will be ranked 1-135 based on contract values. Max value for #1 will be $22 million. Minimum extension value is $1.5m
These can also be found on the google doc on the second farthest from the right. 

Hitters
1
$28.0m
2
$26.5m
3
$25.0m
4
$24.5m
5
$23.5m
6
$23.0m
7
$22.0m
8
$21.0m
9
$20.0m
10
$19.0m
11
$18.0m
12
$17.0m
13
$16.0m
14
$15.6m
15
$15.2m
16
$14.8m
17
$14.4m
18
$14.0m
19
$13.6m
20
$13.2m
21
$12.8m
22
$12.4m
23
$12.0m
24
$11.8m
25
$11.6m
26
$11.4m
27
$11.2m
28
$11.0m
29
$10.8m
30
$10.6m
31
$10.4m
32
$10.2m
33
$10.0m
34
$9.8m
35
$9.6m
36
$9.4m
37
$9.2m
38
$9.0m
39
$8.9m
40
$8.8m
41
$8.7m
42
$8.6m
43
$8.5m
44
$8.4m
45
$8.3m
46
$8.2m
47
$8.1m
48
$8.0m
49
$7.9m
50
$7.8m
51
$7.7m
52
$7.6m
53
$7.5m
54
$7.4m
55
$7.3m
56
$7.2m
57
$7.1m
58
$7.0m
59
$6.9m
60
$6.9m
61
$6.8m
62
$6.8m
63
$6.7m
64
$6.7m
65
$6.6m
66
$6.6m
67
$6.5m
68
$6.5m
69
$6.4m
70
$6.4m
71
$6.3m
72
$6.3m
73
$6.2m
74
$6.2m
75
$6.1m
76
$6.1m
77
$6.0m
78
$5.9m
79
$5.8m
80
$5.7m
81
$5.6m
82
$5.5m
83
$5.4m
84
$5.3m
85
$5.2m
86
$5.1m
87
$5.0m
88
$4.9m
89
$4.8m
90
$4.7m
91
$4.6m
92
$4.5m
93
$4.4m
94
$4.3m
95
$4.3m
96
$4.1m
97
$4.0m
98
$3.9m
99
$3.9m
100
$3.8m
101
$3.8m
102
$3.7m
103
$3.7m
104
$3.6m
105
$3.6m
106
$3.5m
107
$3.5m
108
$3.4m
109
$3.4m
110
$3.3m
111
$3.3m
112
$3.2m
113
$3.2m
114
$3.1m
115
$3.1m
116
$3.0m
117
$3.0m
118
$3.0m
119
$2.9m
120
$2.9m
121
$2.9m
122
$2.8m
123
$2.8m
124
$2.8m
125
$2.7m
126
$2.7m
127
$2.7m
128
$2.6m
129
$2.6m
130
$2.6m
131
$2.5m
132
$2.5m
133
$2.5m
134
$2.5m
135
$2.5m
136
$2.4m
137
$2.4m
138
$2.4m
139
$2.4m
140
$2.4m
141
$2.3m
142
$2.3m
143
$2.3m
144
$2.3m
145
$2.3m
146
$2.2m
147
$2.2m
148
$2.2m
149
$2.2m
150
$2.2m
151
$2.1m
152
$2.1m
153
$2.1m
154
$2.1m
155
$2.1m
156
$2.1m
157
$2.1m
158
$2.1m
159
$2.1m
160
$2.1m

Minimum Extension value is $2m

Extension Values – Pitchers
This list can also be found on the spreadsheet on the 2nd farthest tab to the right. 

Pitchers
1
$22.0m
2
$20.5m
3
$19.0m
4
$18.0m
5
$17.0m
6
$16.0m
7
$15.0m
8
$14.5m
9
$14.0m
10
$13.5m
11
$13.0m
12
$12.5m
13
$12.0m
14
$11.5m
15
$11.2m
16
$11.0m
17
$10.8m
18
$10.5m
19
$10.2m
20
$10.0m
21
$9.8m
22
$9.5m
23
$9.3m
24
$9.0m
25
$8.8m
26
$8.5m
27
$8.3m
28
$8.0m
29
$7.8m
30
$7.7m
31
$7.5m
32
$7.2m
33
$7.1m
34
$7.0m
35
$6.9m
36
$6.8m
37
$6.7m
38
$6.6m
39
$6.5m
40
$6.4m
41
$6.3m
42
$6.2m
43
$6.1m
44
$6.0m
45
$5.9m
46
$5.8m
47
$5.7m
48
$5.6m
49
$5.5m
50
$5.4m
51
$5.3m
52
$5.2m
53
$5.1m
54
$5.0m
55
$4.9m
56
$4.8m
57
$4.7m
58
$4.6m
59
$4.5m
60
$4.4m
61
$4.3m
62
$4.2m
63
$4.1m
64
$4.0m
65
$4.0m
66
$3.9m
67
$3.9m
68
$3.8m
69
$3.8m
70
$3.7m
71
$3.7m
72
$3.6m
73
$3.6m
74
$3.5m
75
$3.5m
76
$3.4m
77
$3.4m
78
$3.3m
79
$3.3m
80
$3.2m
81
$3.2m
82
$3.1m
83
$3.1m
84
$3.0m
85
$3.0m
86
$2.9m
87
$2.9m
88
$2.9m
89
$2.8m
90
$2.8m
91
$2.8m
92
$2.7m
93
$2.7m
94
$2.7m
95
$2.6m
96
$2.6m
97
$2.6m
98
$2.5m
99
$2.5m
100
$2.5m
101
$2.4m
102
$2.4m
103
$2.4m
104
$2.3m
105
$2.3m
106
$2.3m
107
$2.2m
108
$2.2m
109
$2.2m
110
$2.1m
111
$2.1m
112
$2.1m
113
$2.0m
114
$2.0m
115
$2.0m
116
$2.0m
117
$1.9m
118
$1.9m
119
$1.9m
120
$1.9m
121
$1.9m
122
$1.8m
123
$1.8m
124
$1.8m
125
$1.8m
126
$1.8m
127
$1.7m
128
$1.7m
129
$1.7m
130
$1.7m
131
$1.7m
132
$1.6m
133
$1.6m
134
$1.6m
135
$1.6m

Minimum extension value is $1.5m.