MLB’s Free Agency Needs Fixed
The MLB has had quite possibly the most boring offseason the history of the sport since free agency began in 1976. Yes, certain big names have applied their signatured to a team. Patrick Corbin, Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller, Andrew McCutchen, David Robertson, and Brian Dozier are just a handful to be listed. Yet, the two biggest names going into the free agency, Manny Machado and the man who’s been hyped up to no end since 2014, Bryce Harper, have still yet to sign somewhere. Both are surely trying to break that contract barrier of Giancarlo Stanton’s massive 13 year/325 million dollar deal from the Marlins, now with the Yankees minus 30 or so million currently. Yet, neither of them have signed and both are questionable to top it.
So, why is it so hard for a team to give one of these two stars the contract they’re looking for?The main issue is that every team wants to rebuild if they lose. Even teams that have only missed the playoffs by one game want to rebuild, and it’s killing the sport.
Every team it felt like in the past five years has “rebuilt”. Even the Yankees did it to a lesser degree, and they are notorious for spending gobs of money to win. Yet, no one is really spending to win anymore. A key team for me is the Mariners. No, that is not a typo. I said the Mariners.
Seventeen years. No playoff appearances. They came within games of making it, but maybe they could have picked up a key free agent like Machado or Harper. But instead, they tossed everything aside and made plans to rebuild. They went full on fire sale for the team and sent most of the team to new homes. James Paxton is now a Yankee. Jean Segura is now in Philadelphia. Mike Zunino was moved to the Rays. Even stars like Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz, who was the MLB Save Leader, and even got a few stray MVP votes, are now on the Mets. Yes, they got prospects for the future, some who were MLB Ready. They even got Mallex Smith (which was a good move for them), plus Edwin, who will be flipped for more prospects at the trade deadline most likely. Yet, it’s caused teams to just freeze in free agency, waiting to see if there’s another “seller” or not. And do not get me started on the Indians.
Now, no teams want to spend their money to pay these once cherished top prospects they were once willing to give up their superstars for. Yet, both Harper and Machado want to break the Giancarlo contract and that brings new issues for it.
No team is willing to pay these big names what they are asking for, nor fulfill the commitment to the years they are asking for in these contracts to surpass the Giancarlo benchmark. Realize I keep mentioning this “Giancarlo” benchmark, but the Marlins eventually realized their mistake and rebuilt as well. They sent the contract, and Giancarlo, to the New York Yankees. Yes, the Nationals offered 10 years/300 million to Bryce and (as of 01/16/19) the White Sox offered Machado a contract in the 8 year range. Neither of which would’ve been able to surpass Gianacarlo, unless a team wants to pay them 40+ million for 8 years. Again, the years of commitment being an issue for teams like the Dodgers, Red Sox, and even the Yankees, who of which learned from one Alex Rodriguez sized mistake.
As no one seems to want to budge on their wants, client or team, MLB is basically at a stand-still in terms of signing big name free agents. Some lower tier free agents signed, but people like Manny Machado and Bryce Harper should’ve signed at least in December, yet we’re a month and a half away from Spring Training, and it looks like there may be another “Free Agent Team” there. Worst case scenario, MLB may have another lockout like in 1994, which is certainly not what the sport needs right now.
