GM meetings could trigger a free-agent flurry
Dave Dombrowski, now the architect of a World Series champion in each league, will begin his victory lap this week when the general managers meetings — the annual gathering otherwise known as the unofficial start of Major League Baseball’s hot stove season — kick off Monday.
But as all these front-office types converge, will they consider the blueprint of Boston’s Dombrowski — who also put together the 2003 world champion Marlins — something worth emulating in the months ahead?
Taking the pulse of this offseason’s marketplace is one of the main activities at the GM meetings, with agents getting the opportunity to shop their clients for the first time. It’s also worth noting that the luxury- tax threshold will bump up to $206 million (U.S.) for 2019, so the top-spending teams will have a little extra cash to play around with this winter.
How much of that will wind up in the pockets of players will be watched closely by both sides in the months ahead. Consider this week more of a feeling-out process, with the ac- tion ramping up as we move closer to the winter meetings — MLB’s off-season carnival — which commence Dec. 9 in Las Vegas, appropriately enough.
So here are a few things to keep an eye on in the days ahead:
The question on everyone’s mind after the World Series is how much, if at all, Manny Machado’s bizarre behaviour will hurt him in free agency. From his defiant stance on his occasional leisurely stroll out of the batter’s box — “I’m not Johnny Hustle” — to spiking first basemen not once, but twice, Machado certainly had no interest in projecting a solid clubhouse presence for any prospective suitors.
It feels as if we’ve been following the countdown to Bryce Harper’s free agency ever since the Nationals made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft. And although D.C. is the only professional home he’s known, there was no way Harper — a client of agent Scott Boras — was going to set his price before hitting the open market.
On Friday, the Nationals made the procedural move of extending the $17.9-million qualifying offer to Harper, simply to ensure that they’ll be compensated if he opts to sign elsewhere.
In the past few weeks, there has been speculation that free agents will jump to sign much earlier this off-season after what happened a year ago, when waiting left many players out in the cold. From what we’ve seen already, that could be the case.
The Dodgers’ David Freese and the Yankees’ Brett Gardner — certainly not big-ticket free agents — worked quickly to get new deals to stay put with their current teams, who ripped up their options for new one-year deals. Freese agreed to $4.5 million, a $1.5-million trim, and Gardner accepted $7.5 million (plus a $2-million buyout), down from his $12.5 million team option.
David Price, who should have been the World Series MVP, chose not to opt out of his current pact, staying with the $127 million he has remaining over the next four years.
Clayton Kershaw, who figured to be one of the big winter prizes, did opt out of his original seven-year, $215-million contract — but only because he agreed Friday to a new threeyear, $93-million deal to remain in L.A.
We’re only in the first days of free agency, but the activity could pick up in a hurry, with teams also looking to make trades to clear some payroll space.