Craig Edwards wants players to make more money by not signing long term deals before they reach free agency:
It might seem counterintuitive to propose that players should be trying to get to free agency without extracting larger guarantees from their teams when the problem right now is that teams are not spending in free agency, but getting more, higher quality players to free agency would help the players immensely.
Last year, when the Red Sox were desperate for a pitching upgrade, they used prospects to acquire Chris Sale and his team-friendly contract. If Chris Sale had been a free agent, they — or another team — would have paid Sale $200 million or more. Instead of transferring money to the player, however, they transferred prospects to the White Sox. That transaction gained the players nothing.
Similarly, the Giants have no need to go out and buy an ace on the free-agent market because they already have Madison Bumgarner on a cheap deal. The Brewers traded away a bunch more prospects to the Marlins for Christian Yelich because he has five years on his deal instead of just two. Adding more good or even great players to free agency changes the spending dynamic completely, and it makes trades for cost-controlled players less desirable. When teams can’t exchange prospects for talented major leaguers, they are forced to spend money on them.
It’s a decent short-term solution. Players should go to arbitration every year, and become free agents as soon as possible, and that would indeed bring them more money. Of course, if they get hurt or flame out, they might not ever get a shot at a big deal.
My idea for universal free agency solves this problem, too. If every player were a free agent, from when they sign their first amateur contract to when they are looking for a job in their late 30s, they’ll get paid what they are worth. Imagine Mike Trout signing a free-agent deal at 22 years old.
Edwards idea also cuts against one of the original MLBPA notions of free agency. By keeping the supply of free agents low, it would drive up the price of those remaining. That also doesn’t work any more.
The teams adapted to the way the players wanted free-agency to work, and the players never bothered to adjust to the adaptation. Failing to adjust kills careers on the field, and now it’s killing the pocketbooks. The players need to fight for shorter and shorter times to free agency, until there is no reserve system, no drafts, and no caps on signings.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2EoOnzX
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