Despite CF Lorenzo Cain's five-year, $80M deal with the Brewers on Thursday night, frustration among players with the slow pace of MLB free agency is "growing" while "entrenchment on the teams' side is intensifying and neither party seems particularly inclined to blink," according to Jeff Passan of YAHOO SPORTS. Sources said that the players are "encouraging one another to stand firm amid teams' efforts to remake the free agent market." Sources added that players "believe the value dispute between the sides will last long enough that a number have discussed the possibility of staging a free agent training camp to mimic their typical spring work." Others already are making "workout plans independent of a possible camp." The players have "coalesced around not just a depressed free agent market but anger" over MLB's proposed "implementation of new pace-of-play rules." Sources said that MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark earlier this week met with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Deputy Commissioner/Baseball Administration & Chief Legal Officer Dan Halem to "discuss pace of play." Sources added that negotiating against the backdrop of the free agent market has "complicated the possibility of a deal." Some "cry collusion, though no clear evidence to support that has manifested itself yet." Meanwhile, sources said that the MLBPA, in "addition to gathering information to best react to the market, is considering addressing a pair of situations contributing to the cause." Not only is the union exploring whether the Marlins are "complying with revenue-sharing rules," but it it examining whether the Pirates, who traded CF Andrew McCutchen and P Gerrit Cole this offseason, are "reinvesting the money given to them into baseball operations" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/26).
