General Spirit: Unlocking additional performance in prospects.
In some cases your player development staff will reccomend players who can exceed their anticipated ratings with some extra time in the minors.
In those cases you will see an alert on his player profile page.
Good candidates are prospects who, by upgrading a rating category, would become appealing to your team.
Example: A prospect with an 83 CH/AV, 70 PH, and 70 SP is a great candidate, because if he qualifies for an upgrade, you could choose to improve his CH rating. This would transform him from a backup player to an everyday starter.
These type of players are referred to as Lottery Tickets, and if a player doesn't work out for your team, you may find a trade partner interested in giving that Lottery Ticket a try.
More about Lottery Tickets.
To qualify, a player/prospect must:
If you see an alert on a player's profile page, it will explain:
The cost to upgrade a player is $5M, drawn immediately from your cash reserves.
To upgrade a player, select the rating you would like to target, and click the “Purchase Upgrade” button.
While a player is upgrading, it is important he does not play in the majors, be traded, or released. Any of those actions will cancel the upgrade.
You can monitor a player’s upgrade status in his player profile page.
Pitchers may upgrade: EN, CO, K, or a pitch rating
Position players may upgrade: CH, PH, SP, K, or EYE
The chance and amount of upgrade potential depends on a player's quality.