Scouting, Draft, Free Agency & Trade Guide
There are many ways to bring in units: the Prototype Draft, Free Agency, trades, and signing imported units, development units and released units. Whichever route you take, it starts with scouting, because you can't make a good deal without knowing exactly what kind of unit you're getting.
Scouting: the stats you see are estimates
The stats of other teams' units and draft prospects aren't their true values but estimates from your scouts. How accurate those estimates are depends on two things.
- Scout accuracy — Each club has 3 scouts, each with its own accuracy. The skill of your most accurate scout determines the overall estimation error.
- Unit knowledge level — How long you've observed that unit. Units you've never seen have large errors, and the more you send scouts or face them in games, the closer the estimates get to the true values. Units on your own team are fairly well known by default.
Units with a low knowledge level are marked as uncertain on screen. Potential in particular has a large margin of error, so double-check before spending a lot of credits based on high potential alone.
Scout assignments
| Assignment | Effect | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Analyze a specific unit | Raises the knowledge level of one unit quickly. When done, a report arrives in your Inbox. | Right before a free-agent signing or trade |
| Analyze a club | Gradually learns about every unit on one club. | Looking for trade partners, analyzing a rival |
| Analyze draft prospects | Learns about all of this year's draft prospects. | From midseason on |
| Outer-system search | Learns about all imported-unit candidates. | When you're thinking about replacing an imported unit |
Reports show grades of S, A+, A, A-, B+ … F for hitting, power, baserunning and defense (stuff, control, breaking stuff and battery for pitchers), along with potential and an overall rating.
Prototype Draft
- It runs for 5 rounds, with the teams that finished worst last season picking first.
- A higher Prototype Development Lab level boosts the potential of the units you draft. If you're playing for the long term, it's worth investing early.
- Drafted units receive a signing bonus.
- Most new units won't contribute to the Majors right away. Develop them in the Minors and watch which upgrade type they turn out to be.
Free Agency
Units become free agents after completing 8 seasons, and again every 4 seasons after that. Free Agency runs over several rounds; in each round, several clubs make offers and the unit chooses.
- Units have an agent who passes along their operating power and contract length demands and shows their reaction to offers. "We'll consider it positively" means you've met their demands; "We'd like to hear other clubs' offers too" means you're a bit short.
- Units don't look only at operating power. They avoid teams with many better units at the same position, since there's no starting job, and they prefer winning teams. Loyalty to their original team also plays a part.
- Demands of the remaining units tend to drop as the rounds go on. For units that aren't big names, you can wait and sign them cheaply.
- You can sign at most 2 outside free agents per offseason, and you must pay the original club compensation of 200% of the unit's previous operating power (100% if OVR is below 60). Factor in the compensation as well as the operating power when you decide.
- If total operating power exceeds the squad budget, signings are blocked. You can ask the owner for a budget increase from the Club menu.
Keeping your own free agents
For key units approaching free agency, you need to manage their compatibility and loyalty. Designating one under the Franchise Star Program greatly raises the odds it stays, and with a Homegrown Priority culture, units you developed yourself are more inclined to stay. Both are explained in the Club Management guide.
Trades
Other clubs judge a deal by the units' value, their own positional needs and rivalries. When negotiations break down, you may get a counteroffer, and AI clubs also send you offers first or trade among themselves.
- Packaging several units doesn't simply add up their value. Only 100%, 60%, 40% and 30% of their value is counted, in order from most to least valuable. One sure thing is better than four so-so units.
- The other club's core units (its top 3 by value) can't be acquired without giving up units of similar caliber.
- Target their needs. Clubs value units at positions where they're weak more highly.
- Dealing with a rival club is expensive. There's a premium when you send units to a rival.
- You can trade with the same club only once per season, and the more trades you make, the more other clubs demand, 15% more each time. Focus your in-season trades on the one or two you really need.
- The deadline is July 31.
Other ways to recruit
- Imported units — You can have up to 3. Learn about candidates with the outer-system search assignment before signing them. Replacing an underperforming imported unit midseason is also an option.
- Outer-system prototypes and development units — Units you bring in cheaply and develop in the Minors. Most never make the Majors, but now and then a Late Bloomer is hidden among them.
- Released units — Units other clubs have let go. Many are washed-up older models, but units that have recovered from a malfunction or just didn't fit their old team sometimes pull off a "revenge of the released."