Will the impact of free agency soon diminish

[tag0519]

I was thinking about this the other day. It seems that there is an increase of contract extensions lately. Matt Moore, Andrew Mccutchen, Joey Votto, Brandon Morrow, to name a very few. Do you think if this trend continues the free agent market will become sparser thus making free agency less of an impact - and possibly putting an end to the Steinbrenner business model? With successful teams like the Rays I think that may occur. What do you think?

-Tom

[RaysFan_98]

Moore hasn't made that positive of an impact this year actually been the opposite to be honest. But yes maybe teams will start to move the Rays way! Draft and Sign long term but draft smartly.

[SamtheBravesFan]

People have been arguing this since free agency started. While teams may try to focus on signing extensions now, this just means some agents will advise their good players to hold out until free agency. That way, they'll be the rare diamonds on the market and command more money than they otherwise would have obtained.

[GiambiJuice]

Lately, it's been all about the extensions. Teams are locking up their prized possessions, not letting them get to free agency. Some more big names that weren't mentioned in OP are Ryan Howard (disaster), Tulowitzki, Longoria, Matt Cain, and Justin upton...just to name a few.

[philliesfiend55]

There may have been a spike in contract extensions lately, but the lure to get a big payday and long-term contract from a big money team via Free Agency will always be there. Principles and team loyalty can fly out the window in the face of one's ability to write their own ticket and virtually print their own money.

[bluesky5]

Lately, it's been all about the extensions. Teams are locking up their prized possessions, not letting them get to free agency. Some more big names that weren't mentioned in OP are Ryan Howard (disaster), Tulowitzki, Longoria, Matt Cain, and Justin upton...just to name a few.

The one time he should have struck out. I'm not sold he won't hit 20 HR this year.

[bluesky5]

As relevant now as it was 7 years ago.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Lately, it's been all about the extensions. Teams are locking up their prized possessions, not letting them get to free agency. Some more big names that weren't mentioned in OP are Ryan Howard (disaster), Tulowitzki, Longoria, Matt Cain, and Justin upton...just to name a few.

I think this make sense for teams. If they develop a star player they would to keep him unless there are a team like the Marlins who can't afford to keep elite players.

[bluesky5]

Baseball is Broken. Can Anything Short of a Strike Fix It?

By Michael Baumann

Link to article

[Yilan Dai]

Baseball is Broken. Can Anything Short of a Strike Fix It?

By Michael Baumann

Link to article

Teams are smarter now, and they know to put tens of millions into players past their prime could be a terrible investment decision.

The players should just go for earlier arbitration eligibility and a more player-friendly arbitration process in the next CBA because most players probably can't get their big bucks in free agency anymore.

[PVNICK]

Maybe there should be a refund to season ticket holders and cableviewrs and streamers from the owners who apparently collect more money than ever, if the team fails to win 75 games or if they don't max out their payroll or perhaps they can pay it to the vendors, and other support staff.

I realize that is fantasy, btu it seem that the people paying the bills and those actually doing the work get the least out of it.

[Mongoose]

Here's a list of free agents still available:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/

Unless MLB has better talent waiting in the Minors, it looks like collusion again. Or most teams have decided to use cheaper, inferior players, rather than try their best to win, simultaneously. The rise of analytics doesn't explain this; not unless there's a secret World Series where top WAR/$ wins.

If you follow the Mets, this is nothing new. Fred Wilpon pioneered this style of operating a team. My enthusiasm for the Mets has greatly diminished over the years. I follow baseball out of habit, but no longer spend much money, and have taken long breaks from paying attention. If the teams themselves don't care much about winning, why should anyone else?

[dominik]

Here's a list of free agents still available:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/

Unless MLB has better talent waiting in the Minors, it looks like collusion again. Or most teams have decided to use cheaper, inferior players, rather than try their best to win, simultaneously. The rise of analytics doesn't explain this; not unless there's a secret World Series where top WAR/$ wins.

If you follow the Mets, this is nothing new. Fred Wilpon pioneered this style of operating a team. My enthusiasm for the Mets has greatly diminished over the years. I follow baseball out of habit, but no longer spend much money, and have taken long breaks from paying attention. If the teams themselves don't care much about winning, why should anyone else?

The teams think rather a 1.5 win player for 500k than a 2 win player for 12m. That is why prospects are so valuable right now, every team tries to collect cost controlled talent.

[bluesky5]

Here's a list of free agents still available:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/

Unless MLB has better talent waiting in the Minors, it looks like collusion again. Or most teams have decided to use cheaper, inferior players, rather than try their best to win, simultaneously. The rise of analytics doesn't explain this; not unless there's a secret World Series where top WAR/$ wins.

If you follow the Mets, this is nothing new. Fred Wilpon pioneered this style of operating a team. My enthusiasm for the Mets has greatly diminished over the years. I follow baseball out of habit, but no longer spend much money, and have taken long breaks from paying attention. If the teams themselves don't care much about winning, why should anyone else?

I think this is one of the reasons baseball won't do anything about shifts or limit bullpen usage to speed up games. The less a starting pitcher pitches the less money he is worth. The less a player hits the less he is worth. The style of play puts a cap on player performance and thus salaries.

[abolishthedh]

While admitting I couldn't possibly prove this, I don't believe collusion exists in the offseason in today's game. Owners may have flatter learning curves than they should, and deep pockets might flatten those curves further, but I have to give them credit for some learning ability eventually.

Something esle, IMHO, may be a source of enlightenment for owners. That source is as simple as the strikeout rate today. The number of players with sustained greatness worthy of 8-figure and 9-figure longterm contracts seems to be diminishing. More often than not, a player wins an MVP or Cy Young, and regresses to a normal level of MLB performance. Whatever happened to Josh Donaldson, Dallas Keuchel or Jake Arrieta? In a separate thread over the past year, I made the point that Kris Bryant was over-rated from the git-go, had one monster season as any good player can, and suddenly is a borderline Allstar again. Very strange when that development happens to so many players these days. Re: Bryce Harper, I recently posted that he needs to attempt some contact hitting and to stop swinging for the downs all the time. The only thing Harper accomplished in the past year was to win a silly home run derby contest, and he otherwise isn't worth what everyone assumes he might sign for soon.

For the first time in any thread, but a thought I have had for some time, addresses Andrew McCutcheon. His decline was all too swift as well. Right here I will predict that Christian Yelich will go the way of Josh Donaldson, and be an ordinary allstar contender/disappointment for his team soon. Yelich might play 15 years from now regularly, but does that matter when those 15 years include only a couple of Allstar Games as a late game replacement? If a player is really all that, then he sustains his performance, through injury, after injury, through new defensive positions and new teams.

Okay, okay, I can hear it already: Defensive shifts. Well, maybe there is something to how the effect of shifts have affected performance. And maybe there is something to how these lunkhead players refuse to adjust and take advantage of large swaths of green and empty field to hit the ball. Either dadgum way, players cannot be worth 8-figure or 9-figure contracts longterm when either one (and I do not care which) is true.

No, there isn't collusion so much as owners have flatter learning curves than those hitters do. Yet, those owners have had decades more time to learn from it all.