Can I still take a loan in baseball?

I want to pick up Tommy Pham (min bid $8) but i have no free money to spend. Rather than drop a $40 Josh Donaldson (which would free up $20), can i bid $8, win Pham, drop a $1 pitcher/player and take a loan to complete the pickup? If so, what implications will the loan have on my team now & in the offseason?
Thanks in advance

You only get loans from other teams during trades - they have to loan out the money in order for you to take in the money. So, you will have to get your team legal in order to make this transaction stick.

Full disclosure, the site will not make you cut a player if you decide to keep your team in an illegal state for the last few days of the season, but you’ll be in violation of Rule 1a and be open to punishment from your commissioner / league.

ah, ok…thanks Niv. so say I cut donaldson and pick up pham as described above. my team will be in a legal state but i will have incurred about $50 of cap penalties. what happens during the offseason to those cap penalties? do they get wiped away on a certain date? or how else do i get back to having $400, since i only have $350 now? hope that makes sense. just hoping i haven’t dug myself in a cap penalty hole that is hard to get out of…

Cap penalties completely wipe once the season ends, as do team-to-team loans. You don’t have to be in a legal state (40 players, $400 or less in used cap) until the keeper deadline on January 31, and can trade to your heart’s content until then.

So no, you would not be in a cap penalty death spiral.

Auctions have to be started by Friday at midnight ET, so make your choice soon!

great info. thank you so much! do you have personal outlook on donaldson? thinking he is looking like he is on the decline.

I’m personally a Cleveland Indians fan so I think he’s going to hit 100 home runs in the postseason :slight_smile:

No idea where he’s going to be playing next season and age-wise / injury-wise due for a decline… but maybe a better question for baseball polls

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niv,
one last question: what about player salaries for players that were cut during the season? kyle seager (cost $40) was cut and now has a minimum bid of $20. will he still cost $20 in the offseason or do player salaries get wiped away just as team cap penalties do?
thanks,
jamie

Minimum bids are based on cap penalties. If a player is being paid $20 after being cut by a team, they wouldn’t take less money to play for another team - the cap penalty becomes the minimum bid to get that player to play for your team.

Since the cap penalties wipe in the off-season, everyone who was cut during the season starts with a $1 minimum bid in the free agent auction draft.

thanks again niv. i appreciate your fast & detailed replies!

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