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.