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Thread: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

  1. #1
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    These are veteran agents, most of whom have gone through strikes and work stoppages, but nothing, they say, has resembled this winter.

    There have been frigid free-agent winters, particularly the past few years, but nothing has resembled this deep freeze.

    Seventy days have passed since the start of free agency, and only 32 free agents who entered the marketplace have signed major-league contracts.

    There are still more than 150 unemployed players, including J.T. Realmuto, Trevor Bauer, George Springer and D.J. LeMahieu.
    https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/6561534...mpression=true

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    Member Rojo Rijo's Avatar
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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    This is hands down the least exciting baseball has ever been (when there hasn't been a work stoppage). This is like going 2 mph in traffic. Following some of the media guys on Twitter it's almost sad how little content they have to work with right now. Like a goldfish trying to survive in a puddle.

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    Member reds77's Avatar
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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    It's a bummer. The NBA & NFL still have managed to keep their sport relevant and interesting during the season and offseason despite the unusual and crazy year that was 2020 and to start 2021. I guess the doomsayer hot take for me is that baseball needs to get its act together. The offseason in MLB is no longer entertaining or fun.

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    Member Bourgeois Zee's Avatar
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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by reds77 View Post
    It's a bummer. The NBA & NFL still have managed to keep their sport relevant and interesting during the season and offseason despite the unusual and crazy year that was 2020 and to start 2021. I guess the doomsayer hot take for me is that baseball needs to get its act together. The offseason in MLB is no longer entertaining or fun.
    The NBA's off-season was straight fire. It's been that way for multiple years now.

    What can baseball steal from them, though?

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    Member Rojo Rijo's Avatar
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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Finally we get something today!

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by reds77 View Post
    It's a bummer. The NBA & NFL still have managed to keep their sport relevant and interesting during the season and offseason despite the unusual and crazy year that was 2020 and to start 2021. I guess the doomsayer hot take for me is that baseball needs to get its act together. The offseason in MLB is no longer entertaining or fun.
    Baseball has been going down the tube for a while now. For me the biggest thing is, it's not a level playing field. If a team can spend double or triple what you can, why try? Why should I care? It doesn't market it's players well. It doesn't even market itself well. What should they do better in the off-season? I'd start with quit having the teams say they are broke every year. That would help.
    WHEN DOES IT STOP!?!?

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by reds77 View Post
    It's a bummer. The NBA & NFL still have managed to keep their sport relevant and interesting during the season and offseason despite the unusual and crazy year that was 2020 and to start 2021. I guess the doomsayer hot take for me is that baseball needs to get its act together. The offseason in MLB is no longer entertaining or fun.
    When there's no place in the game for mid-level veterans who've been around for a while because they want to make more than the veteran minimum (aka the types who are free agents in a typical offseason), there isn't that much to talk about. It's a league of megastars and nobodies now, and guess what: our team doesn't have any of the megastars.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by Z-Fly View Post
    Baseball has been going down the tube for a while now. For me the biggest thing is, it's not a level playing field. If a team can spend double or triple what you can, why try? Why should I care? It doesn't market it's players well. It doesn't even market itself well. What should they do better in the off-season? I'd start with quit having the teams say they are broke every year. That would help.
    It isn't necessarily that the Reds aren't willing to spend money; the issue to me is that not only will they not spend money, I have zero confidence the front office in place has an actual plan that will result in a winner. This fanbase can't take another five years in the wilderness. I hope they have a better plan than it appears.

    Having said that, who are the smart, no-money orgs? Cleveland and Tampa Bay come to mind immediately. Two teams that struggle at the gate despite winning consistently. Why? Fans don't like seeing good players getting shipped out every year, even if the guys that replace them are still good.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by bm1475 View Post
    When there's no place in the game for mid-level veterans who've been around for a while because they want to make more than the veteran minimum (aka the types who are free agents in a typical offseason), there isn't that much to talk about. It's a league of megastars and nobodies now, and guess what: our team doesn't have any of the megastars.
    Then owners and the MLBPA should reduce the years of service required to reach FA.

    - - - Updated - - -

    They won't but they should...if that is the problem.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Many of these more than 150 players have been given offers that they have refused. They are holding out for pre Covid-19 money. Good luck on that.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by Z-Fly View Post
    Baseball has been going down the tube for a while now. For me the biggest thing is, it's not a level playing field. If a team can spend double or triple what you can, why try? Why should I care? It doesn't market it's players well. It doesn't even market itself well. What should they do better in the off-season? I'd start with quit having the teams say they are broke every year. That would help.
    Agreed, the sport has many issues. I think the NBA and NFL do an excellent job staying relevant in the offseason; some of this is based on league-union bargaining agreement and how players get paid.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by Kinsm View Post
    Then owners and the MLBPA should reduce the years of service required to reach FA.

    - - - Updated - - -

    They won't but they should...if that is the problem.
    MLBPA should be willing to nuke multiple seasons in order to get paid sooner in the next CBA negotiations. The prior system was built on the idea that owners would continue to operate in good faith and try to pay guys to win, and they clearly aren't anymore.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by bm1475 View Post
    Having said that, who are the smart, no-money orgs? Cleveland and Tampa Bay come to mind immediately. Two teams that struggle at the gate despite winning consistently. Why? Fans don't like seeing good players getting shipped out every year, even if the guys that replace them are still good.
    It was interesting, during the Jim Thome era, Cleveland had a lot of stars and huge streak of consecutive game sellouts. Kind of supports your point, they were a powerhouse and kept
    their established stars (for the most part). Usually, when they made a trade, it improved the team.

    I agree with you that a team like Tampa or Oakland that is constantly reshuffling the deck and a marginal contender is just not as exciting for the average fan. Plus, as Reds' fans, we know the sign of resignation that a good player is gone as soon as he's eligible for FA.. Like Bauer for example, countless others. Of course, when a franchise is in the darkness like the Reds, it seems great to be a consistent over 500 team that has a shot at the playoffs almost every year. But then when it happens, the fans want more
    [Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob

    Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by REDREAD View Post
    Plus, as Reds' fans, we know the sign of resignation that a good player is gone as soon as he's eligible for FA.
    Eh, they locked up Votto, Bailey, Phillips, and others well into FA, sometimes at market rates, and those guys always become Reds Fans' favorite whipping boys.

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    Re: MLB Agents Talk About Slow Free Agent Market

    Quote Originally Posted by CaiGuy View Post
    Eh, they locked up Votto, Bailey, Phillips, and others well into FA, sometimes at market rates, and those guys always become Reds Fans' favorite whipping boys.
    Exactly. As I've been saying, the Reds' problems never have been spending money; on a pound-for-pound basis (i.e., dollars spent compared to market size), the Reds may even be league champions.

    The bigger issue for the Reds is how they spend. They are never quite fish (big market big spenders) or fowl (churners like Oakland and Tampa and Cleveland). They are too poor to get the elite free agents and too sentimental to let go of name talent when the talent would get a premium.

    (That's not the only issue, of course - just the one related to spending.)

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