Written by Andrew V., Commissioner of the LBL and GM of the Richmond Rifles.

Reserve-Era settings, combined with out league’s own custom rules, can be difficult to understand for GMs nor familiar with the era.

Furthermore, the OOTP engine’s habit of unhinged inflation is particularly potent in our era.

The following guide aims to help new GMs understand the era’s financials to best maximize their franchise strategy.

The Reserve Clause in History

In MLB’s early history, the Reserve Clause “was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract’s expiration.” This clause generated an owner-friendly system in which players were at the mercy of ownership with standardized contracts.

While players occasionally resisted this clause by refusing to play until they were released or traded, the Supreme Court ruled in 1922 that professional baseball was an “amusement” and therefore exempt from the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act.

The Reserve Clause Era lasted until 1975, which “opened the door to widespread free agency within North American professional baseball.”

The Reserve Clause in Our Game

Under Reserve Era settings, the OOTP engine simulates yearly evaluation of player salaries based on performance. These benchmarks are set by the LBL Board and routinely go up at behest of the LBL Player’s Union in our GM Meetings.

Extensions and multi-year salaries are disallowed.

Unfortunately, OOTP does no separate personnel from players, and so all personnel must be re-signed every year or they will be dropped from the franchise.

Owner Budgets

OOTP’s financial engine struggles with owner budgets, which cannot be set manually by the Commissioner.

Each season, the game engine takes the total revenue of all franchises and divides it between each team, with weighted modifiers for both the team’s success that season and the owner personalities. The engine will then have the owner take any cash above the league cash limit. What remains is your team’s budget next year.

This hard-coded calculation often results in budgets well beyond the salary cap of the game and results in stockpiles of cash on hand, which then drives massive inflation in new player (FA) contracts. If left unchecked, this results in incredible inflation in the league file.

To mitigate the inflation of owner budgets, the Board controls and adjusts ticket prices, which in turn can mitigate franchise profit and keep owner budgets down. Fan Interest (FI) still plays a large role in attendance.

Furthermore, the Board uses the immersive Players Union to gradually adjust salary baselines at sustainable rates. We call this “magic number” the Chattaway Line, which, in theory, allows us to keep inflation at rates consistent with history.

The Salary Cap

Since 1903, the LBL has employed a $90,000 salary cap to prevent franchises from taking advantage of an unrealistic excess of owner budgets and cash on hand. This number is roughly the median player salary divided by the roster limit, and can be changed during the GM Meetings in the offseason.

What does this mean for me?

As a GM, you should have little trouble keeping under the Salary Cap, especially as the Feeder Leagues evolve and randomly generated Free Agents diminish.

When high-value Free Agents are available, ensure that your bids are not over your cap, as they will be disallowed by the Board if you sign the player.

NOTE (1911 season): As of the 1909 season, Free Agents are no longer generated at the end of the seasons, and all new LBL players are brought in through Feeder Leagues. So while technically possible to reach your salary cap, it is highly unlikely in the current era.

Before signing or trading players, be sure to check that the transaction does not place you over the Cap, as the Board will likely disallow it.

Furthermore, if you have one of the few remaining “legacy” multi-year contracts from before the single-year contract rule was put in place, you may not release that player and must work within the cap.

Do not attempt to extend players; extensions are only turned on to allow personnel to be re-signed (as they do not auto-renew in the Reserve Era and will be released without yearly extensions).