I need some help thinking through a salary cap issue. Bear with me while I lay out the details:
I have $3 in cap space, and no open roster slots. There is a player being auctioned with a minimum bid of $13. I want to bid $14, and I can get to that by dropping one $14 player (+$7 savings), one $3 player (+1), and three $2 players (+3). The result would be $14 under the cap and 5 open roster slots.
My question is this: can I spend the entirety of my budget on one player if I still have four open spots after I win the auction? Or would it only allow me to spend $10, ($14 minus $1 for each roster slot I still have open)?
Per the rules:
Functionally, this means that while teams do not need 40 players on their roster at all times, they must have at least $1 available for every free roster spot, not including extra roster spots due to a player being suspended, on the 60-day IL, on the COVID-19 IL, or opted out from the MLB season.
I. b. is the relevant rule.
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Ok, glad I asked! Thanks Niv
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FWIW, I use a ledger on a spreadsheet to figure this stuff out when I’m right up against the cap/roster requirement and have gotten burned once or twice when I tried to do it in my head.
Little trick: if you have any $1 guys who are on the 60 day IL, don’t cut them (or add them to your roster if it’s been 30 days since you cut them). They can be useful for helping to meet the 40 man roster requirement and they’ll cost you the same whether they are on your roster or not.
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