(Photo by Keith Allison)
This offseason was a dim one for top-tier baseball players, as they fell startlingly short of the money they expected to be thrown their way when they hit the free agent market. Yu Darvish, J.D. Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Jake Arrieta, and other stars around the league discontinued a trend that had lasted as long as I can remember, as no single player reset the market heading into this spring.
It just so happens that this trend coincides with another new phenomenon around the game of baseball: Players are becoming more and more willing to take massive pay cuts years before they even hit free agency to ensure that they set themselves up for life. Essentially, major-leaguers need to play a full six years in the bigs before they’re actually eligible to hit the open market. For the first three of those six years, they basically have no say over their contracts and no leverage to negotiate with the team, so they end up with a fraction of what they are otherwise worth. Then, after three years, they become arbitration eligible. Both the team and the player pick a salary that they think they are worth, and a neutral arbiter picks the value that they think is the most realistic.
Over the last few seasons, teams and players have been expediting this process by locking up their players before they reach the free agency stage. The most notable example was Mike Trout. As some of you may remember, a few years back, Trout signed a 6 year $144m deal––while he was still a full three years away from hitting the free agent market. Effectively, the Angles got a reduced price for three years of free agency, while Trout got the financial security of getting his first massive payday. Really, the move was genius for Trout. If he hadn’t taken the massive extension, he wouldn’t have become a free agent until last summer, where he likely would’ve landed in the neighborhood of $300m. Now he has just three more years to wait until he will inevitably hit a number even higher than he otherwise would have. Basically, Trout set himself up for life with this move and will be hitting free agency again in just three years with an even bigger contract waiting for him on the other end.
According to ESPN’s Derek Wetmore, next on the docket to sign a massive deal years before hitting the open market is Byron Buxton, centerfielder for the Minnesota Twins. This honestly boggles my mind. Just a few years ago, Buxton was the number one prospect in baseball. He had general managers salivating over his five-tool potential and advanced skills at a young age. However, things have gone pretty far south for Buxton so far, as he has been injured for at least half of his first three MLB seasons and has drastically underperformed while healthy. He has also lost the lust and mystique that baseball writers once saw in him––he is projected to hit just .248 this season. Yet, according to Wetmore, he could be flirting with a ridiculous $100m contract. Holy no-brainer, am I right? This guy has stunk throughout his career, gets hurt all the time, and is getting offered a cool hundred mil? Sheeeeesh!
The new system that baseball’s up-and-coming stars have generated has proven to be beneficial for both sides ever since its inception. The stars get financial security while still getting a shot at free agency in their primes, and teams are able to lock down their star player at an affordable price. With the money in big-name contracts seemingly hitting a wall, expect more and more players and front offices to take this clever alternative route.
Comentários