Incentives and Disincentives

Ken Rosenthal notices that all the rules in the collective bargaining agreement are coming back to hurt both players and clubs. He notes that there is a catch-22, where teams want to give free-agents high average salaries for fewer years, but the luxury-tax threshold means they need to spread out the money over more years.

Rosenthal also notes that free agency doesn’t work for the players as well as it used to, and calls for something I’ve wanted for a long time, players getting paid well younger:

For decades, players thrived under the current setup — club-imposed salaries for their first three years, arbitration-inflated numbers for the next three, the riches of free agency after six. But in recent years, clubs have started pointing to aging curves on players who hit the open market at anywhere near 30. Even with caps on the amateur and international markets — caps that in theory should boost free-agent spending — the open market is not what it once was.

Some agents whisper about collusion, evoking memories of the owner-driven conspiracies that depressed free-agent salaries in the late 1980s and cost the clubs $280 million in a settlement with the players. One agent lodges a typical complaint, saying negotiating in the current climate is “like watching a horse race that is always tied.” But while the union filed a grievance to baseball last February, saying four clubs — the Athletics, Marlins, Pirates and Rays — are not spending their revenue-sharing money properly, it has not filed a complaint alleging collusion.
The clubs, it appears, have simply figured out how to take advantage of the system, much as the players took advantage of the system in the past.

Change is needed — change that would enable players to receive their highest salaries during their 20s, when they are at their most productive. No true reform, however, will occur before the collective-bargaining agreement expires in Dec. 2021. That means (gulp) two more offseasons after this one under the current rules. And then, perhaps, the first work stoppage in more than a quarter-century, particularly if the two sides struggle to establish a new world order.

TheAthletic.com

I don’t believe there will be another work stoppage. Both sides are making too much money. They have also shown a willingness to cooperate during this century.

I do believe that fewer rules lead to less opportunities to game a system. That’s why I favor universal free agency, no draft, and no salary cap. Note all the ways the current system was gamed:

• Teams hold players in the minors so they can get seven seasons out of them, and / or until all their prime years are in team control.
• The draft was manipulated so much by teams, amateurs, and agents that MLB had to put limits on spending by slot. This saved money has not gone to free agents.
• The luxury tax was supposed to reign in big markets, but they just kept spending and winning.
• Caps on signing international players have led to scandal, and have not generated more money for free agents.

There won’t be an elimination of all these rules. I would like to see, however, the lifting of restrictions on the signing of draft choices and international players. I would like to see free agency after three years. I would like to see a luxury tax threshold that is high and linked to yearly revenue, say 75% of revenue divided by the number of teams and a constant penalty.

It would be nice if instead of tying to “fix” the current system, the two sides sat down and said, “How would we build this from scratch?” Maybe they get a better system that way.

from baseballmusings.com http://bit.ly/2SyN9F7