Unlike last offseason, this year's MLB free-agent class contains more accomplished players like Harpergetty images
MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark "expressed concern" over a second straight offseason that has many top free agents "without deals less than a month before spring training," according to Ronald Blum of the AP. Clark on Thursday said, "All the dead time in the last two free-agent markets is a larger threat to our game than any supposed dead time between pitches." Blum noted just 58 of the 164 players who "exercised the right to become free agents following the World Series had announced deals through Thursday afternoon," up from 45 of 166 on the same date last offseason. However, this year's free-agent class "contains far more accomplished players" like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Dallas Keuchel. Agent Scott Boras, who reps Harper and Keuchel, said, "When they're signing that late, it's just how major league owners choose to do business and how the commissioner's office has directed them to do so. ... What we learned from last year, this is standard operating procedure." Boras added that "changes in club front offices have led to drawn-out negotiations for free agents." Boras: "I would imagine that in the analytic abyss, you want to explore your investment of having your staffs go out and find the gaps in trades before you explore for free agency" (AP, 1/24). In N.Y., Ken Davidoff notes the waiting period this year "goes down as particularly painful given the anticipation going into this winter." The MLBPA "signed off on a highly unfavorable" CBA that "creates hurdles and penalties for healthy spending and therefore grants excuses for teams to treat the luxury-tax threshold as a soft salary cap." That "leaves the industry with this uncomfortable situation" (N.Y. POST, 1/25).
DEEPER LOOK: MLB Deputy Commissioner/Baseball Administration & Chief Legal Officer Dan Halem, on why the narrative exists that teams are not spending money, said, "It’s a function of a very slow moving free agent market that’s kind of taken on a life of its own. The speed at which the market transpired last year resulted in the creation of the storyline and its continued into this offseason. If the players signed for the same amount of money, but they were all signed by January, I really don’t think we’d be having this conversation." He added, "No other professional sport has 7-year contracts, 8-year contracts, 10-year contracts -- we’re the only one -- and given that a lot of those deals haven’t worked out, it understandable why teams are going to be very careful to commit to a player for that length of time" (JOHNWALLSTREET.com, 1/25). In Philadelphia, Bob Ford writes MLB's mega-contracts represent an "all-eggs-in-one-basket approach that doesn’t always yield a quality omelet." For every major signing like David Price to the Red Sox or Mark Teixeira to the Yankees that "resulted in a good return, there is an Albert Pujols to the Angels or a Robinson Cano to the Mariners that didn’t significantly alter a team’s course" (PHILLY.com, 1/25).
DODGERS BLUES: The Dodgers on Thursday signed free agent RF A.J. Pollock to a four-year deal, with in L.A., Bill Plaschke notes while the biggest issue is the deal means the Dodgers "won't be signing" Harper. Plaschke: "The story is that, for yet another winter, one of baseball's richest teams passed on baseball's richest available talent." Pollock "makes sense until you realize that he's replacing Harper." Then his presence "just falls into the Dodgers' recent ominous offseason pattern of ignoring big-money players ... in lieu of plugging gaps with modestly priced gamers." The team could be "holding their wallets for next season" for when Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado is slated to become a free agent, but "last winter everyone thought they weren't spending money because they were waiting for Harper" (L.A. TIMES, 1/25). ESPN.com's Alden Gonzalez wrote instead of "chasing a once-in-a-generation star" in Harper, the Dodgers signed Pollock because he "provides balance to their lineup and relief to their payroll." They chose "to remain below the luxury-tax threshold." Gonzalez: "Like it or not, this is who the Dodgers are" (ESPN.com, 1/24).
MEET THE METS: In N.Y., James Wagner notes Mets COO Jeff Wilpon and Exec VP & GM Brodie Van Wagenen on Thursday said that the "bulk of the work had been done" to the team's roster and "essentially ruled out any pursuit of Machado and Harper." Wilpon said of the front office, "From a price-to-value point of view, I don’t think they’ve come to me to say, ‘Listen, we really need to do this because it’s come down to the point where we think the cost has value.'" Wilpon referenced LF Yoenis Cespedes when he said, "We do have a $29 million outfielder on the roster we hope will come back sometime this year to be productive" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/25). On Long Island, Anthony Rieber writes, "Rather than saying the Mets are cheap, it’s more accurate in this instance to say they just don’t want to swim in the waters of $300-million contracts. Or even $250-million ones. Not now and probably not ever" (NEWSDAY, 1/25).
