Chris Sale signed a five-year, $145M contract extension with the Red Sox on SaturdayGETTY IMAGES
An increasing number of MLBers are "choosing to delay, or even effectively waive, their ability to offer their services to the highest bidder" in free agency, and extend with their current team instead, according to Jared Diamond of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. In recent weeks, Angels CF Mike Trout, Astros 3B Alex Bregman, Cardinals 1B Paul Goldschmidt, Rays P Blake Snell, Red Sox P Chris Sale and Astros P Justin Verlander "all signed extensions with their current teams." Last month, Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado, Yankees P Luis Severino and Phillies P Aaron Nola "did the same." All of these players "likely left money on the table," and their contract extensions "remove an enormous haul of talent out of the free-agent pool over the next few years." This all is "pointing toward a future where free-agent classes are older, smaller and decidedly devoid of star power, a shift that could fundamentally alter the landscape of the industry moving forward." Looking ahead, it is "hard to envision many more players reaching free agency as young" as Alex Rodriguez, Phillies RF Bryce Harper or Padres 3B Manny Machado, "mostly by choice" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/25).
WORRYING TREND FOR UNION: ESPN.com's Buster Olney wrote in the midst of the "most significant wave of contract extensions in baseball history," players who are "not free agents have been guaranteed well over" $1B since the start of Spring Training. However, these deals "extend a management winning streak that is becoming like a labor relations version of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak." The owners "won the collective bargaining negotiations" of '16 in a "complete rout." They also "won the free-agent market" of '17-18 and "won it again this offseason, gnawing away at the expectations of what players might expect to get." The number of MLB spring contract extensions has been "pretty steady in recent years." Meanwhile, MLBPA leadership has "stoked the fears" of teams not participating in free agency, "perhaps inadvertently or unwittingly." Some players and agents believed MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark's "aggressive warnings to players of a possible work stoppage on the distant horizon ran the risk of rendering collateral damage -- of causing player to grab financial lifeboats that would guarantee them big dollars, to save them from the labor uncertainty." Before Spring Training began, those agents and players "predicted there would be a wave of team-friendly contract extensions -- and that's exactly what happened" (ESPN.com, 3/22).
LOSE-LOSE DEALS? ESPN's Karl Ravech said of front-offices locking up players with extensions, "You believe in the odds, you've concluded in your mind that Snell, Bregman and Trout are all near-locks to be successful from a business perspective. God willing that's the case. ... You're doing it based on all the stats and analysis and analytics that you have, and you're saying, 'There's no 100% deal when you're dealing with human beings, there just isn't.'" Ravech said from a "club perspective, with all due respect, some of these deals look disastrous." He added, "It's almost like you have never learned from the past. You're going to commit 10 years to a player? It's not going to work in years 6-10. There's nothing about the human body that suggests it's going to in some ways get better, bigger, bolder." More Ravech: "I never agreed with the union suggesting that any deal a player signs is bad because it lowers the average annual salary. That is such a turn-off to me. ... If in fact a team is offering you whatever, and you and your agent are just deciding that's not enough money, no problem at all. ... I don't buy in totally to the idea that the union is in a sense dead here. I get that they're reeling a little bit but this is the current trend" ("Baseball Tonight Podcast," ESPN.com, 3/22).
