NON-TAXPAYER MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION -- This exception is available only when a team is below the "apron" (i.e., not paying luxury tax, or less than $4 million above the tax line). This determination is made
after the exception is used, so a team below the apron cannot use this exception if doing so takes it above the apron. It cannot be used by a team that has already used the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception or the Room Mid-Level exception. It allows a team to sign any free agent to a contract with a starting salary up to the following amounts[SUP]3[/SUP].
This exception may be split and given to multiple players. It may be used for contracts up to four years in length, with raises up to 4.5% of the salary in the first year of the contract. Signing a player to a multi-year contract does not affect a team's ability to use this exception every year -- for example, a team can use this exception to sign a player to a four-year contract, and use it again the following year to sign another player. Also see question number
26 for more information on the availability and use of this exception.
If the player is a restricted free agent with one or two years of service and receives an offer sheet from a new team, the player's prior team may use the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception to match the offer sheet (see question numbers
44 and
45).
Again, this exception is only available to teams that are below the "apron," i.e., below the point $4 million above the tax line. Teams above the apron instead must use the smaller Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (see below). Further, any team that uses its Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception cannot go above the apron for the remainder of that season. In other words, once a team uses its Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception, it is hard-capped at the apron (see question
28 for more information).
However, if a team uses its Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception but does not exceed the constraints of the Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (e.g., in 2011-12 they use the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception to sign a player for $3 million or less), then the team is allowed to later exceed the apron (i.e., it is not hard-capped). If the team later exceeds the apron, then it is considered to have used the Taxpayer Mid-Level exception rather than the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception. But the converse is not true -- if a team is above the apron and spends any of its Taxpayer Mid-Level exception, it cannot drop below the apron and spend the remaining money as part of its Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception. Finally, a team that was above the apron but did not spend any of its Taxpayer Mid-Level exception has full access to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception if it later drops below the apron.
A different team salary definition is used for determining whether a team is above or below the apron. See question number
14 for details. In addition, this exception begins to pro-rate downward daily starting on January 10 each season (see question numbers
26 and
29), and expires on the last day of the team's regular season.
