Scherzer called the slow free-agent markets over the past two offseasons unacceptableGETTY IMAGES
With more than 50 free agents still on the market as Spring Training gets underway, Nationals P Max Scherzer said that there are "too many teams trying not to win, and all the rebuilding 'poisons the game,'" according to Chuck King of the AP. Scherzer said, "If you're constantly just going into this win-loss cycle that MLB is pushing, you create bandwagon fans, and that's not the type of fans that you want to create." Scherzer: "This can only happen in baseball, where teams are making public statements that they don't want top-notch players. To me that's a problem within the sport." Scherzer believes that "more teams should be looking for ways to improve." He said, "The one fundamental that's just unacceptable is the amount of acceptability there is to lose." Astros P Justin Verlander also thinks that the "current economic approach pursued by some teams will continue to drive away fans" (AP, 2/14). In DC, Thomas Boswell writes fans "might stop buying tickets during a give-up era when the owner still makes a profit from revenueshared throughout MLB." Boswell: "If the rebuild ever works, will those fans come back? Maybe not." Just as the wide acceptance of analytics has "led teams to lower the value they place on a player past age 30, owners also might have learned that it helps hold down salaries if teams uninterested" in a high-priced star "simply say so." MLB will have "many tough issues to face" in its next CBA negotiation (WASHINGTON POST, 2/15).
MONEY MATTERS: In Detroit, Shawn Windsor writes under the header, "Baseball Doesn't Just Have Free-Agent Problem. It Has Relevance Problem." The slow free-agent market can be called "collusion" or a "market correction." It could also be a "lack of urgency to win, as at least half the teams in the league are in rebuild mode." This offseason has been "painful for the players" and "unsettling for fans." Revenues are "up and owners are making more money than ever," while players are "making less" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/15). In Atlanta, Michael Cunningham wrote MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark "surely will hear the grumbles" when he makes his Spring Training rounds this year. He likely will "tell his members that owners are colluding to hold down salaries, not an unreasonable belief given the circumstances and the history of owners doing just that." However, players’ energy "might be better spent asking Clark why the labor agreement the union signed just two years ago isn’t working for them salary-wise" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 2/15).
