FREE AGENTS AND AGENTS’ AGENTS
The top
free agents this offseason, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, are still unsigned
with spring training games about to begin this week! It’s very strange because both Harper and
Machado are only 26 years old.
Additionally, at the current moment, over 100 free agents remain
unsigned. Similarly, last offseason, many
of the free agents were also unsigned until the season was about to begin, but
it didn’t happen to the top 2 free agents.
Because free agent signings have lagged last offseason and this
offseason, the Players Union has insinuated, “Collusion!” I personally don’t believe it’s collusion,
but I do believe the lack of owners aggressive spending sprees has been caused
by a combination of things:
The
first main culprits, in my opinion, seem to be the free agents’ agents. (This is beginning to seem grammatically wrong,
isn’t it?) Such agents and the law firms
that some of them work for have gotten overly greedy. It’s gotten worse and worse for each of the
past 30 years, or so; but, certainly accelerated over the past 2 years in
particular. Most baseball fans know the
name Scott Boras. He’s one of the main
agents who has represented many players over the past 35 years, including A-Rod
at one point. This year, he represents
one of the top two free agents, Bryce Harper (and a few more of the top 20 free
agents). Ironically, Boras used to
represent Manny Machado, but Manny has since replaced him with his current
agent, Dan Lozano. Rumor has it that
decent deals were offered to both of these free agents, but their greedy agents
preferred record-shattering contract offers instead. The Washington Nationals offered Harper $300
million before Harper began exploring other teams. That would have been a record contract, but Boras
felt he could help get Harper more. At
this late point, it seems like that rejected offer may come back to bite Boras
and Harper. Likewise, Lozano and Machado
were said to have been offered $175 million for 7 years from the White Sox
(which would have averaged $25 million per year), but Lozano was quick to dispute that the $175 million divulged to the press from the White Sox organization was
not accurate. Lozano claimed it was supposedly a lot higher.
That said, he’s insinuating that they are seeking close to approximately
$30 million per year. How can $30
million per year offered to Harper and to Machado be considered “Collusion”?
Secondly,
various MLB players have historically caused a lack of confidence in long-term
deals. Recently, the Yankees’ fans are
very familiar with the overpaying contract the Yankees signed for Jacoby
Ellsbury back in 2014 for a 7-year deal worth $153 million. His productivity and injuries have proven
that his contract was not even close to its worthiness! Prior to Ellsbury, A-Rod was overpaid by Hank
Steinbrenner, who brought A-Rod back to the Yankees before forcing him to find
another suitor. It got so bad that the
Yankees had to make A-Rod an offer to work in the front office for his final
two seasons instead of playing on the field.
A front-office job of over $20 million is not too shabby! On the other side of town, the Mets overpaid
for Yoenis Cespedes who seems to do very well playing golf when he’s on the
Disabled List for the Mets. They also
overpaid for David Wright whose injuries curtailed his final years for them and
he has also since been shifted to the front office as an overpaid executive. The list of examples of failed contracts that
have cost teams excessive millions has become way too common as of late. Since such contracts are guaranteed money to
the players, it’s rammed bad tastes in the mouths of the owners. So, who could blame them for “only” offering
~$30 million annually?
Hopefully,
Harper (recently negotiating strongly with the Phillies) and Machado will be
signed soon. It will help the other free
agents have a stronger wheeling and dealing precedence for their greedy agents’
negotiating tactics and, more importantly, it will help teams’ fans to have
more players to root for by April.
