MLB players concerned by retooling teams, small crowds
Baseball players are concerned the Seattle Mariners have become yet another rebuilding team and may be joined by others following a season of steep attendance drops among clubs that faded early and never contended for the playoffs. Union head Tony Clark and new collective bargaining director Bruce Meyer said Wednesday their members also are concerned about rapid change in the way games are played, such as the increased use of relief pitchers, and are willing to speak with management this off-season about whether counteracting changes are needed. Altering the amateur draft to include an NBAstyle lottery for the top picks, the 10-day disabled list and the 10-day minimum for the recall of players optioned to the minors are among the topics the union is prepared to talk about as part of a wider discussion. So are possible rules to counter offence-suffocating defensive shifts. But Seattle’s decision to trade Robinson Cano, James Paxton, Jean Segura and Edwin Diaz raised concern among players already angered by Baltimore, the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami and Pittsburgh jettisoning veterans. “We have seen some things that are eerily similar to last off-season,” Clark said. “One of the concerns in general has to do with the level of competition or interest in competition across the teams in general . ... When you have teams who are as we’ve seen already moving considerable amounts of their roster and/or other teams who are talking about doing so, it raises concerns about how that’s going to affect the market.” Hours after Clark spoke, Arizona dealt All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis for prospects, perhaps signalling an exodus of veterans from the desert. Players have taken to calling the process tanking, while management calls it the type of normal rebuilding that has been going on throughout Major League Baseball’s history. There were three 100-loss teams this year for the second time since 1985 and eight 95-loss teams for the first time in big league history. Attendance has gotten the attention of both sides. Toronto and Miami each had attendance drops of more than 800,000, Kansas City by over 500,000, and Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Texas in excess of 400,000.