About the Salary Cap

Each team operates under what is called a soft salary cap of $50 million per season. This means all of the players on your team (Active, AAA, and Low Minors) and your front office expenses cannot be higher then $50 million total per season, with some small exceptions as we will get into.

The main reason behind a salary cap? To have some sort of base equality among teams in terms of resources and to make you be efficent with your salary cap usage. It is possible for a 100-win team with a $35 million payroll to be equal or better then a 100-win team with a $50 million payroll. How is this possible? Because the team that spends less on payroll but was able to get the same amount of wins most likely constructed his team better and more efficently. In turn, this gives the team with the lower payroll the ability to make more trades and free agent signings in order to improve his team further.

Another effect of the salary cap is that it helps prevent super teams from being created with no regards to payroll management. It is still possible to create a 120-win team, it just takes more effort and perhaps some luck.

Salary Cap Structure

The salary cap is broken down into two expense categories:

• Payroll:
* Active Roster (most of your payroll goes here) * AAA Roster * Low Minors Roster

• Front Office
* Development * Drills * Batting Scout * Pitching Scout * Defense Scout

Note that there is a maximum of $7 million that can be spent in each Front Office category.

Pretty simple when you look at it this way. When the season rollover takes place, your payroll is calculated and your front office expenses use what is left over. So if you have $35 million in payroll at the rollover, that means you have $15 million left over for front office expenses. That $15 million afterwards is available for free agents and trades.

Salary Cap Rules

You can't have a salary cap without some rules! Here they are:

• Salary Cap: $50 million
• Free Agency: You cannot sign a free agent if it will put you above $50 million in payroll or if you are already above $50 million.
• Trading: You cannot make a trade if it will leave you above $50 million in payroll.

Now there are some exceptions to the salary cap. These are allowed to give a team some limited flexibility even if they are over the cap.

• Development: At the season rollover, if your players gain enough salary, it is possible to start the season with a payroll over $50 million. For example, you could have a $49 million payroll before the rollover and your players gain a total of $3 million in salary, you will have a $52 million payroll and its legal. The catch? The salary cap rules above apply!
• Cut Players: You can cut players at any time, even if you are over the cap, and suffer no penalities. If you are over the cap and then cut a player which results in you going below $50 million, you will instantly be able to sign free agents, make trades, etc.
• The Draft: If you are over the cap or become over the cap because of the draft, you can still draft players as long as you have room in Low Minors. For example, if you have $49 million in payroll before the draft and add $1.5 million in payroll to equal $50.5 million in payroll, that is perfectly legal.