Baseball players, owners clash on free agents
Twenty-four years since the last strike in Major League Baseball, the owners and players are at it again.
While they’re setting the stage for a showdown in 2021, they’re also brewing a conflict that should concern fans who want to see the best players on the field for Opening Day 2018.
Both sides exchanged punches in a public forum yesterday, beginning with Players Association executive director Tony Clark, who continued to express angst regarding the 100-plus free agents, elite players included, still unsigned.
“Pitchers and catchers will report to camps in Florida and Arizona in one week,” Clark said in a statement. “A record number of talented free agents remain unemployed in an industry where revenues and franchise values are at record highs. Spring training has always been associated with hope for a new season. This year a significant number of teams are engaged in a race to the bottom. This conduct is a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of our game.”
Clark represented the players in the last CBA negotiations in 2016, and there is growing concern the players signed a bad deal. While the luxurytax threshold was supposed to merely be a yellow light for the big-spending teams, some fear it’s serving as a hard cap with added penalties included.
The Red Sox might want to avoid spending $237 million on their 2018 team. Any team that spends $40 million more than the $197 million threshold will lose 10 spots on its first draft pick and lose international bonus money, which has become precious in modern times.
With new restrictions for overspending, some believe there’s even more of an incentive for teams to tank.
The players argued that teams need to pony up, regardless of the tax. The owners are making more than ever, with Yahoo Sports reporting that franchise values have gone from $18.1 billion to $46.1 billion in the past five years. Player salaries are jumping, too, but not keeping pace with the owners’ profits. MLB was quick to respond. “Our clubs are committed to putting a winning product on the field for their fans,” the statement read. “Owners own teams for one reason: they want to win. In baseball, it has always been true that clubs go through cyclical, multi-year strategies directed at winning.
“It is common at this point in the calendar to have large numbers of free agents unsigned. What is uncommon is to have some of the best free agents sitting unsigned even though they have substantial offers, some in nine figures. It is the responsibility of players’ agents to value their clients in a constantly changing free agent market based on factors such as positional demand, advanced analytics, and the impact of the new basic agreement. To lay responsibility on the clubs for the failure of some agents to accurately assess the market is unfair, unwarranted, and inflammatory.”
The Red Sox are one of those teams believed to have issued a five-year, nine-figure offer to slugger J.D. Martinez for around $125 million as of mid-January.
Martinez’ agent, Scott Boras, believes there’s a bias against players 30 and older (Martinez turned 30 last August). He also believes too many teams are tanking, 10-11 by his count, and that kind of unhealthy behavior led to a hold-off mentality on free agents.
MLB could argue it’s too late to fight rules the players agreed to in 2016. Teams appear to be in a position of leverage now, with many players signing for less than expected while most elite free agents are still available.