There’s clearly a problem when the biggest move to happen in the MLB offseason was to have Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray decide that he didn’t want to play baseball.
With superstars Bryce Harper and Manny Machado on the free-agent market, MLB could have thrived on the drama that makes the NBA a yearlong soap opera. Instead, Harper and Machado (and plenty of other talented players) remain unsigned. And spring training is here! Pitchers and catchers started reporting to camp on Monday as a number of free agents still await contract offers.
Justin Verlander had seen enough.
The Astros pitcher took to Twitter on Monday and called out baseball’s “broken” system. Verlander wrote that he was tired of hearing teams blame “rebuilding” for not moving on Machado or Harper.
Both Harper and Machado went into the offseason looking at possible $300 million contracts, and we’ve gotten to the point where people are floating the idea of signing monster one-year deals.
In a sense, Verlander has a point. The lack of movement when it comes to star free agents has been frustrating to fans and the players, obviously. MLB could have benefited from instituting hard deadlines for signing top-tier free agents. The sense of urgency would add intrigue to offseason free agency, and teams wouldn’t let Harper or Machado go into February unsigned.
As our Ted Berg pointed out, teams are stalling due to the collective-bargaining agreement, which punishes teams for exceeding the luxury-tax threshold of $206 million. As a result, teams are not rushing to spend massive contracts on players right off the bat.
The existence of the threshold gives teams justification for limiting their investment in players, which allows teams to take in a larger portion of the sport’s increasing revenues. The free-agent market just isn’t what it was a few years ago, and so guys like Harper and Machado are left to dangle.
But this blame doesn’t fall entirely on the teams — at least, not to the degree that Verlander claims. After all, the Nationals did offer Harper a 10-year, $300 million deal, and that was turned down.
The marquee free agents will eventually find teams, but Verlander is right to be annoyed. We’re all right to be annoyed.
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