Unrest on the players’ side of the fence in a dismally slow offseason reached the point where player reps in the union asked if whether it was viable for even those who have signed contracts to collectively refuse to report to Spring Training until Feb. 24, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required). That represents the mandatory reporting date, though pitchers and catchers (and some others) will report to camp prior to that date in a given year. The MLBPA informed those representatives that doing so would violate the CBA and constitute an “unlawful strike,” prompting the notion to be dropped. The very thought further illustrates the overall discontent of players, Rosenthal notes, and that general level of frustration doesn’t help matters as the league and union continue to negotiate the implementation of pace-of-play measures.
Some other notes from around the game…
- In addition to Ken Giles, whose arbitration hearing took place yesterday, we should soon learn the results on a pair of arb hearings from the Marlins. FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted recently that J.T. Realmuto’s arb hearing was on Jan. 31, while Justin Bour’s was slated for Feb. 1. Giles and the Astros filed at $4.6MM and $4.2MM, respectively. Meanwhile, the Marlins filed at $2.9MM and $3MM for Realmuto and Bour, while that duo countered with respective figures of $3.5MM and $3.4MM (all of which can be seen in MLBTR’s 2018 Arbitration Tracker). Heyman also noted that Dan Straily’s hearing is set for Feb. 14, and Luke Jones of WSNT.net tweeted recently that Orioles righty Kevin Gausman told him his hearing is also set for the 14th of the month.
- The Nationals have little interest in bringing Jayson Werth back to D.C., writes Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. Werth, though, hopes to play next season and tells Janes that he’s enhanced his workout routine this offseason. “I’m still training,” says Werth. “I’m still doing the same stuff I would do every other year. I’m actually training harder because I know I’m getting older, and the only way to keep up is to work harder, which sucks.” Werth, 38, was sporting a productive .262/.367/.446 batting line in 2017 when he hit the DL in early June due to a foot injury. When he returned in late August, though, he struggled to a .155/.226/.286 slash through the end of the season, and his struggles continued in the postseason.
- Rockies top prospect Brendan Rodgers tells Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post that his ultimate goal for the 2018 season is to make his MLB debut. While the team’s director of player development, Zach Wilson, loves the ambition behind that goal, he wouldn’t comment directly on the plausibility of that scenario. “We’ll see what happens, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have those aspirations and those goals this year,” Wilson told Saunders. “But I will also say this: we’ll make sure he is ready for the next step before he takes it.” Wilson adds that Rodgers will see action at both middle infield positions during Cactus League play this spring but will also get in plenty of side work at third base as the team increases his versatility. Rodgers is viewed as a potential cornerstone piece in the infield for the Rox, though with Nolan Arenado at third base, Trevor Story at short and DJ LeMahieu at second base, there’s no immediate opening for him. LeMahieu, though, is a free agent following the 2018 season.
So it’s now February and most of of the free agents still aren’t signed. Are we really gonna go into Spring Training with so many guys unsigned?
Yup,
The players are asking for too many years, and the Agents are telling them to wait.
And, this class of fa’s are mostly over 30 yrs. of age and almost all have some deficiencies in their game. These guys are not Harper, Kershaw, Scherzer etc.
None are really high tier.
Agents don’t tell they advise.
“agents are telling to wait” sounds like the agents are pushing the players around when they’re the employee. Your reply reached a whole new level of gibberish.
*them to wait
Rodgers has been getting a lot of reps at 2B. I expect them to let DJ go after this season and have Rodgers open the ’19 season at that spot.
What a bunch of overpaid children.
It’s hard for me to feel bad for someone like JD Martinez who has a $125 million contract in hand from the only team that seems to be interested in him for that much and that long and him still being unsigned… they are acting like they are being screwed out of money that isn’t being offered.
7/147 is a damn good deal for an average 1B, but holding out for a 8th really?
5/125 is a damn good deal as well for an OF who can’t play OF, but again holding out for more?
Hell Darvish has offers as well he is sitting on.
I get holding out for money and more years or waiting for a team you really want to play for to step in, but don’t make the MLB the enemy when there is a ton of money sitting in front of you, but your nose is too high in the air to sign the piece of paper.
Agreed. And they want the players to strike. Unbelievable.
It appears that they expect the market to inflate EVERY year, which just isn’t reasonable… particularly as we’re watching the arbitration process make steps towards correcting the market values of younger players. I would think that seeing guys like Bryant and Betts beat Ryan Howard’s old arbitration record (once in and once out of court) that the players union would view that as a sign of progress and success this offseason.
If I was GM and Hosmer wanted 8 years I’d make it a team option, that way he has to earn the 8th lol
The best offer I’d give Hosmer is 6 years with the 6th being a team option. There’s no way I would give him 7 or 8 years. I don’t even like him for 6 to be honest. I’d feel better with 4 or 5 years. He’s not that great of a player! The best player available by far, in my opinion, is Yu Darvish, despite his World Series woes. He’s the only top free agent I’d sign. Depending on the team, I’d rather take a flier on Andrew Cashner or Chris Tillman, if you can’t afford Darvish. I certainly wouldn’t overpay for Cobb or Lynn.
Boras factor. He’s got figures (unreasonable) out there and will go with them until the end, regardless and unfortunately? nearly all the FA who are top tier are his clients. This is the 1st time can recall an offseason so many have been his it’s worked out this way. All everyone has to do is look back and see how it’s worked in the past with him and see.
He’ll wait for some GM/owner to buckle and personally? I hope no one does to break him of this nasty habit of his.
What nasty habit? His job is to get the players paid as much as he can. That’s literally his job description and thats what he’s doing.
Yea he’s got Dumbo on the hook now! Just giving him a little more line before reeling him…
Watching the Tony Gwynn special on MLB Network reminded me of how much guys like him need to be appreciated. He played for the team he loved and money was never a factor
It’s hard for me to feel bad for the billionaire owners
or the millionaire players.
Just because the system appears to be broken for one year doesn’t mean it’s broken entirely. There’s a small market correction for one year and the platers are losing their minds? Gtfo. It’s like two people playing a game 200 times. Player 1 wins the first 199 times and is having a blast! Player 2 on the 200th game is finally wining and is about to win. Player 1 says this isn’t fair and stomps away in protest. Player 1 is the players. The players are children.
I’m pretty sure some of the unsigned free agents have contracts but they won’t accept them.
Have contracts? You mean you think they’ve signed and don’t like what they’ve signed? Wow if that’s the case, then too ****ing bad. A contract is a contract.
Pretty sure he meant a “contract offer” or “proposal”. They have offers on the table but the offers simply are not to their liking so they don’t sign.
The slow pace is the players’ fault at this point. They are the ones not agreeing to the deals that have been offered them, and instead refuse to sign until their own personal Xanadu opportunity comes along, which by now should be evident is not going to happen.
Ex: Yu Darvish can wait until the All Star break if he wishes, it doesn’t make it any more likely the Yankees or Dodgers will suddenly change their stance re: the CBT. What is out there now is likely the best he is going to get.
No, Adams is saying that union reps asked ALL players, even those with signed contracts, to essentially “strike” as s sign of solidarity. He followed by saying the MLBPA basically said not a good idea.
Selfcorrection: the reps asked if it was viable to ask players to “strike “
not for the money or years they are looking for
A lot of them do.
JDM has a 5/125 offer, but wants 6 or 7 years at 30 each.
Too much, and not realistic.
He is starting to sound like Jose Bautisa a few years ago…
Can you imagine the state of the Jays if they’d given Bautista even half of what he was asking?
Given they held all the leverage last season and were gonna get a pick who knows they might give him another 18 mil this year. Why I dunno why he got 18 mil last season? He had zero leverage they just gifted him 18 mil.
The Braves should sign Werth to a low salary deal & let him keep the seat warm until Acuna is ready. I
really hope Acuna isn’t rushed like Heyward was.
This is just unreal to me. Baseball is the one sport where the biggest contracts are thrown around. You want to go on strike because you are offered 120M instead of 150M or one less year? I don’t think these players (Moose, Darvish, Cobb, Arietta, Hosmer, Lynn, Holland) that the MLB could survive easily without them. It’s not like teams are throwing out low ball offers. Part of me wishes that teams pull their offers on these guys and let them and Boras for that matter worry a little bit. They wouldn’t be making anything sitting at home.
On the same hand, let’s say 2 years ago your industry hired another worker for a 25,000 salary. Would you be content settling for 20,000 knowing that you are a similar worker?
That’s just lowering the AAV of the contracts and cutting a couple zeros, but now how do you feel about their right to complain?
That happens often. When you are going to a new team you are essentially looking to get hired by a new ‘company’. The market changes and that is the way things work, I have been laid off, hired for less when the market is down and then hired for more later at a new company… It is the way the economy works and I don’t see why athletes feel that they should be insulated from that especially when they are making way more than they need,
That’s a valid point, but wouldn’t you say that you as a worker can hold out for a better deal?
This is just the same. Obviously the market corrects and players will realize this, but it is completely reasonable to expect a player to hold out for the best deal possible. And it’s easy to sit on a message board and criticize when we make what we make and they make millions, but I’m not going to tell a player to settle because he is “making way more than” he needs. I would shoot for the best deal possible as well.
The operative phrase here is “similar worker”. This free agent class is less than stellar, and there is no one in it superb enough to justify establishing a new standard or threshold of years or AAV or total value.
Holding out for a similar or greater payday than players previously received in recent offseasons could be suicide if you are not as valuable as those players.
Ccak it’s called market correction, you can’t call it a free market and than when it benefits you for 20 years to reap all the rewards but when’s there’s a blip due to several factors whine and complain and say it’s just not fair. Free markets will sometimes not benefit the players as a whole and it still is, just not in an inflated as much as years past.
I don’t think it’s whining. I’m actually on ownership’s side in the argument; the data has proven most big contracts are poor decision. What I will say is that the players have the right to argue that they aren’t getting the best deals (because it’s in their interest to say so), therefore they can choose to not sign the contract. It’s Negotiating 101.
Umm saying you won’t show up till the last minute for spring training is most definitely whining. I for one hope Manfred implements the pitch clock today. Not because I want the pitch clock, I think getting rid of mound visits 1 per manager, pc and C each per game not inning is my suggestion to let the players know they don’t have any leverage and put his fist down. Players can fire Tony Clark he’s as good as gone now anyway
When has a comparable player to JDM received 30MM? The comparables would be at 20MM and hes being offered more.
Actually basketball contracts are larger
“You want to go on strike because you are offered 120M instead of 150M . . .”
Um…. If you are able to entertain offers that means you are not under contract to any team. If you do not have a contract with a team there is no one and nothing to go on strike against. Players refusing to accept the contract offer(s) made to them are not on strike.
I had reservations about Manfred but I kept my mouth shut. This makes it official for me.
I thought the Copolella saga was absolutely bizarre and now there’s this. It’s a sign of the strange leadership of the commissioner behind it all.
Now you have the idea of putting a guy on 2nd in extra innings to speed up games. These should be red flags for everyone.
A lot of that has to do with the “Oh look there is something shinny” generation. They can’t sit still for a 30 min show much less a baseball game. Sadly this world is going to have to cater to them since, pause for a scary thought, they will one day be running everything.
Lol you old dinosaurs are funny. The game whether you like it or not is ever changing. The game right now has changed plenty even in 5 years. Suggesting rules such as limiting mound visits won’t change the game other then speeding the game up to where it was in the 80s. According to a recent study there’s 35 mins more of inactivity now from games in the 80s. Not commercial time they’ve only added 9 more mins of commercials. The game is ever involving and ever changing sometimes rules need to be put into place so games aren’t 4 hours long soon. If they don’t do this with mound visits then your gonna get runners on 2nd in extras which is awful so it’s in the platers best interest if they don’t want to ruin the game to play faster and accept limiting mound visits
Don’t worry, you guys have done such a terrible job running things that there will be nothing left for the younger generation. Great job, thanks.
I am young (33) but this guy is right. Look around in public. The vast majority of people under 30 are on their phones constantly, needing instant satisfaction and can’t handle the pace of a game that is America’s pastime and is prided on the only game without a clock. Don’t change a damn thing about baseball and if you are too bored or can’t handle sitting still for 3 hours go watch Instagram videos of cats dancing or something. If they ever put a pitch clock or a runner on 2nd in extras, this game is ruined. The one thing I could maybe get on board with is limiting mound visits to a certain number per game. Fine.
Young people don’t want these stupid rules either.
It’s probably what’s best for humanity anyway with the directing y’all are going.
Tide pods are the ice cream I take it?
Oh and let’s not forge the “No Lackin Challenge”.
Yeah it’s the older generations who screwed up.
The game is ruined with a pitch clock? Have you seen Pedro Baez pitch? One half inning with him takes 15 minutes if they go down in order
You guys raised ’em
I’d love to see the Phillies bring back Werth as a bench guy if he’s willing to accept the role. Probably wouldn’t get enough playing time to entice him but they could easily DFA Tommy Joseph to make room for him as a veteran leader/5th outfielder.
Can anyone name a team that is acting irrationally this offseason?
Seems like the rebuilding teams are rebuilding, the retooling teams are retooling, the teams close on the winning curve are signing/trading for players or trying to do so and the “Premier League” teams are still getting better while also getting under the luxury tax.
The players need to stop blaming everyone but themselves for the CBA they signed.
This is such a joke. Players wanting to strike? Hos was apparently offered 7/147 from his hometown team, which would almost double the largest contract ever issued by the royals, and he apparently just isn’t interested in it. We’ll be fine without ya (eventually).
It seems that overpayments had become the norm in the years leading up to this, and teams aren’t being unreasonable by refusing to overpay. It’s like feeding a child candy for breakfast every day for years, and one day you decide to give them something sensible like oatmeal. What’s the child gonna do? They throw the oatmeal on the floor and have an epic tantrum.
Great analogy. The market needs a year like this to remind everyone that we’re not sending these contracts through the roof forever.
Arod said right after the World Series, “baseball is booming everywhere”, and it was, but now it’s actually in peril, mainly because of the awkward free agent compensation system.
Just do away with QO’s and compensation picks. Eliminate that totally.
They have multiple teams not signing anyone because of draft picks and international money.
Lol, yes blame it on the teams. They are the reason these guys are turning down the huge dollars that are being thrown their way.
Right? And that’s especially true when you consider arguably the top pitcher (Darvish) and hitter (JD Martinez) don’t come with draft pick compensation. Lol
Get rid of the QO compensation what do the owners get? THAT WAS NEGIOGATED BY THE PLAYERS!!!! They wanted it! Now they don’t like the system they bargained for. This isn’t Hard the players made a s h itty deal. Now stfu and go and play. Don’t like the deal better fire Tony Clark and prepare for the next CBA. Plain and simple.
If the player buys the agent’s strategy it’s still the player’s decision. Stras told Boras to get it done and he did.
6 or 7 years of team control is way too much. It should be 4. You get 2 years at league minimum and then 2 years arbitration.
That way players are usually hitting free agency at 28. Big contracts give the owners more value because you get 3 prime years. And you can give out longer 6 year contracts because you’re paying for age 28-33 seasons.
WAY too often owners are forced to pay a guy for age 34 through 36 seasons because players are hitting free agency at 30.
Yeah I think you’d see a lot more 10+ year contracts if guys were hitting the market at 26-28.
They also need to fix service time considerations. There’s no incentive for a rebuilding team to give a top prospect an honest shot at a roster spot if they can hold them down for a few weeks and get an extra year of salary suppression.
Cut the young players clock to 4 years and see how long a team keeps them in the minors. They will no longer be able to risk calling up players that may be ready. They will have to have prove themselves over time at AAA before a call up.
If MLB teams would pay MILBers a fair salary this wouldn’t be a problem.
This would make it worse in my opinion, players will just ask for longer more lucrative contracts. Like 10 year deals. More Pujols-esque albatross contracts. Small markets wouldn’t have a chance.
But then small market teams lose their best players after four years. That would allow the financial powerhouses to sign prime players to 10+ year deals while small market clubs have to watch their guys leave and hope they strike gold in the draft
Blake Camden you consistently have the worst suggestions on how to make things better
Teams wanting to develop their own players or choose to wait for next year’s FA class really sound like collusion to me.
All you have to do is design it so players typically are hitting free agency at 28. That means 4 years team control instead of six.
6 years isn’t fair for anyone. You have a player who is forced sometimes to be in a system 6 years he doesn’t work well in. And free agents that you have to overpay for declining years.
If you’re paying for age 28-33 years then a large contract is worth it. Everyone benefits.
I think a lot of the lack of movement is coming from a few things:
Youth movements. Teams are trying to copy the Cubs and Astros models.
Defense. If JD Martinez could play even adequate defense he would be looking at a $200 million contract in my opinion. But he can’t. Teams aren’t going to go nuts on a DH like they used to.
What the players union really needs to do is fight to either shorten team control so guys are free agents sooner (and younger) or they get to arbitration earlier.
Inflating the cost of a win every year by ~10 percent isn’t sustainable. TV contracts aren’t going to keep going up by astronomical amounts and eventually more and more fans will be priced out of buying tickets.
The previous business model was flawed, and there are no dumb and/or desperate owners/GMs left to be talked into terrible decisions anymore. Eventually, the players must realize that the landscape is shifting and adjust. There is absolutely zero justification any GM could give his fan base for filling a hole at 1B by signing Hoz to a ~7/$140M contract instead of LoMo at ~2/$15M. The fact that Hoz apparently thinks that something like 7/$140M STILL isn’t enough to get him to sign — a week or two before ST begins, no less — is mind-boggling.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Werth brought to the Pirates on a one year deal. Always liked him and he could be useful in a role where he keeps the seat warm for Meadows and moves to a bench bat role.
I could see Melky filling this role as well.
The problem is guaranteed money for unguarrenteed performance. There needs to be an out for teams when a player’s performance deteriorates – not a one-way street.
Does that mean there should be an out for players when a team does not perform? Requesting a trade does not mean it will be honored, and thats the only recourse currently.
Teams pay players peanuts in the minor leagues and the player’s salaries are suppressed for 6 years due to team control which in a lot of cases are their best years. If players were getting paid sooner you wouldn’t see so many albatross contracts.
so the players are upset because the owners arent opening up their wallets to overpay marginal free agents???? too bad pampered babies, you don’t get upset when you get a big long contract but don’t have good results on the field, until you give money back or redo your contracts then the fans really don’t ffeel too sorry for you!!!!!
It’s about time these players get realistic and come to grips with the fact 75% are over payed. If they don’t show for spring training then the owners should refuse to sign any FA moving forward this year.
Agreed…some of this stuff gets ridiculous.
And their underpaid for the first three years of their careers and they make less than minimum wage when they’re in the minors.
It’s sad that an athlete needs more millions. As if they can not enjoy life or feel disrespected if they get millions less. Chipper Jones is the only player I can remember that took a pay cut in order to be with the team he desired and so they can sign more players. The greed these people have over the difference of millions. Most people could only dream of getting 1 millions, ie their fans.
I believe Tom Brady has also restructured his contract to allow more flexibility for the Patriots. Different sport, yes, but kind of the same principle.
nfl union allows it but mlb union does not allow restructuring, two completely different principles
I’m pretty sure chipper did it at one point.
Do you think if players all made the league minimum or less that owners would lower ticket prices? Lower concession prices? Parking prices? All suppressing salaries of MLB players does is line their pockets.
i have yet to read, or hear anyone talking about the most basic of business concept, supply and demand. baseball is currently in a stretch were there is a lot of young controllable talent, and the market is not willing to overpay for good (not great) FA class. To me it seems like a simple formula, why overpay for a FA when teams have on their current rosters someone very close to what the FA market has to offer. The best thing MLB can do for the future FA class is to add a couple more teams.
I’ll disagree that it’s what best for baseball. It’s best for the players if they add two more teams.
I’ll agree that I think it’s a compromise the league and the players will make though. Huge expansion fees for two teams , owners make bank, more jobs and money for the players. It’s only a matter of time.
My opinion, there’s two crappy Florida teams that are not healthy right now. Tampa needs a new stadium, Miami might not recover given the PR nightmare they’re. Even Oakland needs a new building. What’s best for MLB is to get these teams situations in a better place and use Montreal and other cities as leverage to get them new stadiums and then get that expansion money.
agree on the relocation of Tampa, the Marlins are not moving, plus contributory to popular believe i think what Miami is doing (dismantling) is the right long term move for that team. The A’s beed a new stadium and they may move from Oakland but not too far maybe to a nearby city. Montreal needs to be back they have a hughe following and then figure out one more spot for another team. 16 teams per division 4 subdivision with 4 teams each.
I agree. If you own a store, and nobody is buying your products, the solution is not to blame the customers and think of ways to force them to buy those products. If something isn’t moving, even marginal business people understand that cutting prices will establish cash flow and get rid of the inventory. It isn’t optimal, but it works.
This whole thing is like being at a retirement home every day hearing the same stories over and over again. The players seem to be losing support of the fans slowly on social media. Manfred is caving and proposing less and less strict rules to pace of play. Hopefully he implements the first prosppsal so the players can complain about that too. About time the players learn they’ve got zero leverage right now. Come on Manfred rule these guys with a iron fist teach them a lesson.
1) All teams are saving up in order to get into the Machado/Harper sweepstakes next year.
2) GMs are finally realizing that contracts like the one Pujols got are great for the first few years before a steep decline. Nobody’s going to hand out contracts like that anymore.
Most teams realize that they wont be the landing spot for Harper/Machado. I will guarantee you its not something teams like Tampa Bay, Detroit, Minnesota, Kansas City… probably at least 20 of the 32 teams, are planning for.
There are 30 teams in MLB. There’s probably four to five teams dumb enough to pay what it would take.
Can we build a team with unsigned players? See how they stack up against signed teams. Lol
Sounds like a plan to me. Establish an expansion team, name Scott Boras President of Baseball Operations, name it the Portland Mystery Team, and let’s just see these players walk on water and find themselves in “Playoffville” this year as Boras claims.
A 38 year outfielder with defensive limitations. You have our attention.
-Giants Front Office
.cleveland should sign Werth to a minor league contract with a spring training invite. He bats right handed and they desperately need right handed hitters. When teams throw lefties, Edwin plays first and Werth DH’s. Every team throws a ton of lefties against Cleveland
What do they expect?? Look at how many teams are either rebuilding or are getting close to. Seems like half the league is either rebuilding, close to rebuilding, or are a small market team with a small market payroll. Jd has nice offer from Boston, Hosmer nice offer from sd and maybe kc. Darvish from milwaukee. I think they gotta be happy with what they’re getting because in the case of guys like Hosmer, it will be an overpay anyways.
yes, these are the faces of the player protest.
JD- released 4 years ago, now 125 million for 5 years isnt enough
Hosmer- has a career year in his walk year, and now 7 years isnt enough
Yu- a TJ surgery in his back pocket and 2 awful world series appearances, but chalk that up to stolen signs and give me 6 years, 140 million.
come on.
Yeah it’s really crazy how much they’re asking for. If this what mike trout on the open market I would understand. But all of these players you mentioned have a lot of negatives that come with them. Take what they’re offering you and be happy cuz you don’t even deserve what you’re getting
this is like an investor wanting to protest because the stock market has dipped the last couple days after a year of historic growth.
of the free agents that have signed, is there a single one who has gotten less $ or less years then they should have?
boras has always been able to find one team to give in and blink and hand over the ransom, but it hasnt happened yet this year.