do something to prevent teams skirting the $120mm salary cap

[RonCo]

Right. Though I don't love it, I think there's value in the idea of retention. And at the end of the day I always like the idea of giving GMs more tools rather than less--even if they are a little complex. (We don't need no training wheels, and it's fine to make mistakes...just have fun doing it!) Understanding Cap Space is a skill, after all. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's a little wonky if you're thinking about it just as "I'm paying this guy's salary."

If you trade a player and some cash, you're paying the guy's salary for as long as that cash lasts.

If you trade a player and retention, you're sending the receiving team that much extra cap space, _and_ paying a chunk of the guy's salary for the duration of the guy's contract.

Retention alone, then, is worth considerably more return on investment.

[aaronweiner]

If done right, retention helps the small market/rebuilding team. They are essentially using cap space that they wouldn't use anyway as a trade asset. It also helps facilitate a trade that may not happen because a player has a bad contract.

I usually send cash back to cover retention cost and/or up the prospect haul to make it make sense.

But if you aren't viewing salary retention as an added "player" in a trade, than you are doing it wrong.

Yeah, that's the idea.

My alternative proposal to 50%, back when we were working on this, was that retention would only be for expiring deals, BTW. I'm actually relatively okay with full retention of expiring deals, but what we surely could not have was full retention of multi-year deals.

[recte44]

We're still thinking about that, Aaron.

[DaveB]

I don’t have an issue with teams sending cash over to cover some salary. I’m not a fan of salary cap retention. I feel like it helps the behemoth teams to much. Sorry for the late response just noticed this.

[7teen]

I just refuse to retain salary in the deals I make. Might prevent some trades from happening but I deal with it myself. I think in all the years we've had it in the league, I've retained a portion of just two players' salaries.

[chicoruiz]

I hate retaining salary, but when I took over ATC I was locked into a bunch of 20 million dollar contracts on aging vets… so many that if I’d kept them all I wouldn’t have been able to fill out a 27-man roster. If I hadn’t been willing to retain some salaries, I never would have been able to trade those guys.

It’s like a toilet plunger… a tool you don’t want to ever have to use, but sometimes it’s necessary.

[recte44]

Yes. Agreed. We have decided that there will be no changes made to retention.

[CTBrewCrew]

#NoMons